Sugar And Spice
by Michele-bell
Summary: Roxas likes Naminé. Axel wants to help Roxas get the girl. But when Roxas finally is able to get Naminé's attention with the help of Axel, he finds himself crushing on the redhead as well! Oh, crap. AU. High school, somewhat crack-ish. AkuRoku. Hiatus.
1. Detention

**Summary: **Roxas likes Naminé. Axel wants to help Roxas get the girl. But when Roxas finally is able to get Naminé's attention with the help of Axel, he finds himself crushing on the redhead as well! Oh, crap. And the devious and angelic parts of Roxas' conscience don't help matters much either.

AkuRoku. High school setting, somewhat crack-ish.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters in this, but the writing and ideas are all mine!

**Warning: **Boy x Boy. Kissing occurs. Maybe some other stuff eventually. And lots of cursing. Because I find it fun to make Disney characters swear. Oh, and my sense of humor is quite perverted.

**Author's Note:** Alright, so this is a little something I've been working on instead of "Partners in Crime" whenever I've been in a weird mood. Hopefully this funny. Unfortunately I don't think this chapter is as humorous as the chapters afterwards, but hopefully I'll be able to keep your attention. Please review so I know to continue!

Update, April 2009: Went through and edited chapter one. Wow, you can totally see my writing improve as this story goes along. I apologize for the crappy writing quality in a lot of this, hope it doesn't turn you off :) I get better, I swear!

* * *

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter One: Detention **

Letting out a heavy sigh, Roxas walked up the cement steps of his school. He dodged a Frisbee that whizzed past his head and tried his best to maneuver around a couple who was making out. He looked at them curiously; wondering what it would be like to make out with someone… He had never even kissed anyone before. Apparently it must be nice, since people liked to do it so much, but it honestly didn't really look that fun. If kind of looked like they were eating each other's face. Ew. _What if the other person ate food that you were allergic to before you made out with them? _he pondered. This was a serious concern for him, since he was allergic to a multitude of foods. _Would you break out in hives? What if the other person's tongue was huge? Could you suffocate? What if – _A couple in front of him who was walking painfully slow ended up stopping in their tracks to kiss, interrupting his thoughts and causing him to walk right into them.

"Oof." Roxas fell back on his butt and his pile of school work went flying. The couple just looked down at him like he was some kind of disease; then proceeded to engage in a heavy lip lock. He groaned as he tried to pick up the scattered papers as people stepped on them.

Yet another great day at Twilight Town High School.

Roxas' heart skipped a beat as he walked into his math class, seeing the gorgeous blonde girl laughing. He walked over to his assigned seat next to her, trying not to stare. Her friends were all around her desk, giggling. He tried not to notice that one of their butts was inches away from his face. As he was shuffling awkwardly through his homework, suddenly a small hand touched his shoulder.

"Hey Roxas, did you understand that homework at all?" Roxas felt his pulse quicken when he looked up into the face of the girl.

"Um, yeah, here you wanna look at it?" he asked awkwardly, handing his homework over to her.

"Thanks Roxas!" The girl smiled at him and he felt himself blush. _Naminé, talked to me! She me touched me! And she knew my name! Oh man, I must be dreaming… _He cautiously looked at her as she copied down his answers.

"Alright, time to shut up and get in your seats," Professor Xigbar announced as he entered the room, just as the bell rang. The students quickly found their way into their places, staring at the man.

"Hand up your homework…" the teacher commanded, sounding bored. He pulled out a clipboard, glancing up, intending to take attendance. His eye met the stares of two dozen students, who hadn't even made a move to obey his request.

"What?" he asked, weirded out by this.

"Professor Xigbar…what happened to your eye…?" Naminé was brave enough to ask the question that everyone in the class had been wondering.

"Oh, this?" The man laughed, pointing at the eye patch covering a portion of his face. "As if I'm gonna tell you punks. Now let's see..." He glanced around the room of disappointed faces, jotting down who was there and who was not.

"Hmm, big surprise, Axel's not here. Anyone know where the little shit is?" Xigbar asked them casually. Xigbar was one of those teachers who swore and no one gave a damn about it. It was just such a natural thing for him and it was never a big deal.

As if on cue, the tall redhead made his entrance into the room, his black tie hanging loosely from his neck and he shirt untucked from his blue dress pants. The teachers were always bugging him to straighten the appearance of his school uniform, but of course he never did. Roxas noticed a few girls make oogly eyes at him as he walked across the room "No worries, I'm here, class can start now." he announced with a smirk, sitting down in his seat in the back, legs stretched out casually.

Roxas rolled his eyes at the sight of this. Axel was a senior who was still in trigonometry, having failed last year. If there was one thing that bugged Roxas, it was lazy people. And cucumbers. But that was a different story. Anyway, Axel was almost always late to class, if he even bothered to come at all. Roxas wondered if the guy even wanted to graduate. _What a loser…_Roxas sighed, stealing glances at the girl beside him, who was still copying his homework.

"Axel, yesterday you skipped my class and today you're late. This is getting ridiculous, man. What's your excuse this time?" Xigbar questioned him, crossing his arms.

"I was having a smoke, you understand." Axel grinned, waving his hand in the air as he said this, dismissing the accusation.

Xigbar sighed and pulled out a slip of paper from behind his desk. "Axel, you're a little shit, you know that?" He leaned down and began filling out the paper. "You're late and skip my class, wasting my time by making me have to fill out this stupid referral." He finished filling out the paper and waltzed over to Axel's desk, slapping it down before the teen.

"Detention for the next two days."

A few kids in the class turned to look at Axel, murmuring, "oooo", in that annoying way they tended to do when someone was in trouble. Axel groaned, picking up the paper and studying it. "Shit…"

Roxas smirked. Serves him right.

Xigbar headed towards the front of the classroom, walking down the aisle between Roxas' and Naminé's desks. The blonde jumped as his hand suddenly snatched up Roxas' homework from her desk, looking at it.

"Copying homework, huh?" Xigbar smirked down at her. Naminé bit her lip as he read the name of who she'd been copying off of. "'Roxas'? Well, you two can join Axel in detention this afternoon." Roxas felt his heart drop. _What? Detention? DETENTION? Noooo! This is going to go on my permanent record! ...My parents are going to kill me…_

Xigbar collected the rest of the homework, not even bothering to ask Axel for his. Roxas groaned and laid his head down on his desk as Xigbar muttered curses about having to fill out even more detention slips.

_Why me?_

_

* * *

  
_

Another ball of paper hit him in the back of his head and Roxas sighed. He turned around to glare at the redhead who was grinning at him. "Would you stop that?" He hissed, quickly glancing over to make sure Xigbar hadn't heard him. Axel laughed softly, flicking a small paper wad right in between Roxas' eyes before the blond could dodge it.

"Nope." Axel replied quietly.

Roxas growled and turned around in his seat sharply. What an asshole. He tensed as he felt himself pelted with another wad of paper. He glanced over at Naminé, who was texting someone on her phone underneath the desk top. She hadn't even noticed that he had been getting tormented for the past hour.

Roxas cursed as a pencil hit him in the temple. He whipped around, yelling, "That's really getting old!"

Xigbar looked up from the book he was reading, "Quiet Roxas," he warned; then looked back down at his book.

Roxas let out an exasperated sigh as he glared at the smirking redhead before him. "You got me in trouble," he hissed.

Axel leaned forward, a small smile stretched playfully across his lips. "You got yourself in trouble," he whispered matter-of-factly.

"Just stop throwing stuff at me!" Roxas begged.

"Roxas, this is your last warning."

The older teen before Roxas stifled a laugh. Finally, Naminé seemed to take some interest in the two boys in the room, turning to see what was going on. Axel glanced over at her and flashed her a smile. She smiled back, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

_Oh hell no…_Roxas thought angrily. _Don't you dare flirt with Naminé! _

He watched as Axel scribbled a note on a piece of paper, tossing it over to her after checking that Xigbar wasn't watching. He felt his anger increase as she uncrumpled it and giggled softly, looking back at Axel coyly.

_Ugh…this isn't happening…_

Axel leaned back in his chair and winked at her, then glanced back at Roxas, who was giving him a death stare. Axel did a double take between Roxas and Naminé, smile fading. Naminé was back to texting on her phone, and Roxas glanced over at her, his gaze lingering a little longer than he had planned. He looked back at Axel to find the other boy's smiling face very close to his now.

"You like her, don't you?" Axel asked, not really needing an answer.

Roxas felt heat rise to his cheeks and he crossed his arms. "No I don't," he said a little too quickly.

"_Yeaaaaah_, you do." Axel grinned knowingly. "I suggest you stop though. She's way out of your league."

"How would you know?" Roxas snarled.

Axel laughed as quietly as he could, "You and me are more likely to go out before you and her."

Roxas drew back from his tormentor in disgust. "Shut up!"

"Roxas, that's another detention for you." Xigbar called out to the boy without looking up from his book. "I'll see you here tomorrow."

Roxas' mouth dropped open and he stared over at his teacher in disbelief. _Again? You've got to be kidding me! And what's worse…I'm going to have to have it with this guy again…_

He glanced over at the redhead, who leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. He laced his fingers behind his head as he smirked at Roxas, proud of himself for getting the younger boy in trouble. Roxas glared at him, feeling his hatred for his peer growing.

Naminé waited at the door once they were dismissed and Roxas found his heart racing wildly.

"Hey Roxas, I just wanted to say that I really sorry that I got you in trouble today," she said sweetly.

"O-oh!" Roxas stammered, blushing. "U-um, its okay, um I didn't mind…"

"You didn't mind getting detention?" she asked, confused.

"Um, no I did mind, it's just that I, um…" Roxas trailed off, scratching the back of his head.

Naminé gave him an apologetic smile, "Well, okay I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow…" she said quickly, not waiting for him to finish uncluttering his thoughts.

Roxas watched her walk away and sighed to himself. _Stupid…_

There was laughter behind him and Roxas turned abruptly to see Axel leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. It seemed that he had completely forgotten all about the annoying redhead.

"Smooooth," Axel laughed. "Oh, man. You really don't know how to act around girls, do you?"

Roxas' anger returned to him as he snapped, "Shut up and leave me alone." He turned on his heel and began to head towards the exit of the school, pulling out his cell phone in order to call his mom to pick him up.

Axel strode up to the boy, placing a hand on his shoulder, leaning forward to look into his face. "I'm sorry; you're just so cute when you're angry." He reached over and pinched the blond's cheek.

Rolling his eyes, Roxas slapped his hand away.

As they walked along together, Axel smiled at him. "What would you say if I told you I can help you get a date with her?"

"I would say that you are full of shit."

Again, Axel laughed and picked up his pace so he was now walking ahead of Roxas, on his way to the student parking lot.

"Just let me know if you change your mind!" he called back at him before turning around the corner.

Scowling, Roxas punched in his home phone number on his cell. He endured the scolding he got from his mother and muttered a "thanks" when she said she'd come pick him up. He slid the phone back into his pocket and walked out the front entrance of the school to wait for her.

He thought about what Axel had said. He wondered if the guy actually _could _get him a date with Naminé. Axel was well known to be a lady's man, after all, but could he get a girl to be interested in someone else?

Wait. Why was he even thinking about this? He would rather eat a cucumber before asking for help from that slacker. And in Roxas' eyes, cucumbers were the devil.

* * *

"_I'm not going to be able to pick you up today, Roxas, I'm swamped in work."_ came the static-y voice of Roxas' mom on the cell phone the next day.

Roxas groaned, "Moooom, how am I supposed to get home?"

"_Take the late bus, honey."_

Oh hell no. That was another thing Roxas would prefer eating cucumbers over. The late bus was loud, filled with kids getting out of elementary school. Roxas couldn't stand it. _Plus, _his stop was the last stop on the bus he had to take, so it would take him an hour to get home. But he didn't exactly have any other options.

"Fine." Roxas said with an aggravated sigh, flipping his phone closed without even bothering to say goodbye. _This sucks!_

"Hey, you need a ride?"

Turning around, Roxas glared at Axel. The much taller boy had actually left him alone during this detention. But it was only because he slept the whole time. Why was he offering him a ride now? Roxas crossed his arms and looked at the floor. _Shit. _

"Why would you even want to give me one?" he questioned.

Axel shrugged. "To make up for getting you a second detention. I guess I feel kinda bad."

It seemed that Axel's attitude towards him had changed suddenly. Roxas looked the redhead over and thought for a second, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why Axel was acting differently.

Roxas cleared his throat before replying, "I'm going to take the late bus, but thanks anyway," he replied coldly. His mind was going through the different pros and cons of each. _Hmm…loud, noisy, smelly little kids, or annoying, slacking, punk? Decisions, decisions._

"Are you kidding me?" Axel asked. "You want to go home on that hell hole?" He waited for a response and when he didn't get one he simply walked past the blond. "Alright. Suit yourself."

Roxas sighed. "Wait."

Raising an eyebrow, Axel turned back.

Ugh. Roxas couldn't believe he was going to do this. "Can…can you drive me home?" he muttered.

"Huh?" Axel asked innocently, smirking and leaning forward. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

Roxas rolled his eyes._ Yeah you did, smartass. _"Can you give me a ride home?"

"Sure thing, Roxas," the redhead replied smoothly, "I offered, didn't I?"

* * *

Roxas was really impressed by Axel's awesome red camaro. When he got into the car he realized he had drooled a bit over it and quickly wiped at his mouth, hoping the redhead hadn't noticed. Roxas adjusted himself uncomfortably in his seat. After making sure to put on his seatbelt (who knows how this guy's driving might be?) he crossed his arms in front of him. He really wasn't happy about having to settle for a ride from this guy.

As soon as Axel started the car, rock music came blasting out. No surprise there.

But wait a second. Roxas recognized those ear splitting chords. The sick guitar solo. The poetic lyrics sung by the most awesome lead singer in the universe. Just hearing it made him want to throw stuff and bang his head against the dashboard – in a good way.

"You like Oblivion?" he asked Axel in disbelief.

"Hell yeah, I like them," Axel replied with a grin, pulling out of the parking spot. "They're my favorite band. You mean you like them too?"

Roxas nodded in reply and when he realized Axel couldn't have seen since he was driving, he quickly said, "Uh-huh."

"Wow." Roxas noticed Axel raised his eyebrows in surprise at this. "I never thought a goody-goody like you would have a good taste in music. Which way to your house?"

"Left." Roxas replied simply; then huffed, "You shouldn't be so quick to judge."

As he turned the car, Axel chuckled. "I guess I shouldn't."

They drove in silence for a little while, Roxas telling Axel where to turn as they listened to the music.

"So what's your favorite song?" Roxas found himself asking. No matter how much he didn't want to admit it, his respect for Axel had gone up a bit._ Anyone who likes my favorite band is okay...I guess._

While still keeping his eyes on the road, Axel pondered this. "Hmmm, I guess I'd have to say 'Sweet Memory'. I can just relate to that one, you know? But I love all of their songs, they're so great."

Roxas looked over at Axel in surprise. What the fuck? "'Sweet Memory' is my favorite song too!" He said excitedly. Wow. Maybe Axel was a cool guy after all. Maybe he should take his own advice, and be not so quick to judge. "Oh, that's my house over there," he said, pointing to it.

Axel pulled into the driveway, parked the car and looked over at Roxas. "Look, I know you don't want my advice," he stated, "but I'm going to give you some anyway, because you need all the help you can get."

Roxas looked over at him, confused. What was he talking about?

"Naminé is a really dedicated art student." Axel continued. Oh. Naminé.

_Weeeee…Naminé. Naminé, Naminé._ He loved her name. It was so fun to say and pretty, just like her. Roxas pried his mind away from her name with much difficulty in order to listen to the rest of what Axel was saying.

"Tomorrow art club is having a meeting, she's the president; you should go."

The blond studied Axel for a minute before replying, "And what would I do there?"

Axel smiled and shook his head at Roxas, "Man, you're slow. Do some _art. _Show her you have similar interests. Compliment her artwork."

"Oh." Roxas gathered his schoolwork from bottom of his seat and sighed. "I suck at art though…."

To his surprise, Axel's grin widened. "There's an excuse to talk to her then. Ask her to help you."

Roxas bit his lip and glanced out the window of the car at his house. "I don't know…"

Axel sighed and leaned back in his seat. "Look, I'll be there tomorrow, okay? If you need any advice, just ask me."

"Um, okay, thanks again for the ride," Roxas muttered, getting out of the car.

"No prob," Axel replied with a quick wave and pulled out when Roxas closed the passenger side door.

After kicking his shoes off when he walked inside his house, Roxas scratched his head. Well. That was weird. He had always thought that Axel was some kind of delinquent who smoked pot or something. Not a friendly guy who liked the best band ever!

When he flopped down on his bed to read some manga, he thought about going to art club the next day. The very thought of it made him nervous. Being able to see Naminé's artwork was tempting…but what if he made a fool of himself in front of her? Maybe he just wouldn't go. _Yeah, _he told himself. _It will be better if I don't go._

"_But you should go." _Suddenly a little Roxas devil popped up on his left shoulder. "_If you go you can pretend that you are having trouble drawing and have Naminé_ _guide your hand with hers!"_

"_Noooo!" _Roxas angel responded by popping up on his right shoulder. "_You shouldn't go and pretend to be interested in art just to get close to Naminé. That could just lead to trouble!"_

"_That could just lead to you getting into her pants!" _Roxas devil retaliated with a maniacal laugh. "_Who cares if you don't like art? She'll never know. Take Axel's advice. Go."_

Roxas studied his horned and pitch forked other on his shoulder. _Maybe he's right…_

"_Don't listen to him, Roxas!" _Angel Roxas begged. _"Do the right thing! Don't lie to her, win her heart your own special way, don't listen to that dumby!"_

"_You talking about me or Axel, bitch?" _Devil Roxas screamed, throwing his pitchfork at the angel, causing the winged Roxas to disappear with a frightened squeak. _"Listen to me, Roxie, darling," _the devil said casually, crossing his arms and leaning casually on Roxas' neck. _"You're going to be sixteen soon, don't you want your first kiss before then? Don't listen to that little prude over there. I'm here for you, Rox, looking out for your best interests. Axel's right. How could a guy who has the same favorite band as you be wrong, after all? You wanna go to that art club tomorrow. "_

Sighing and rolling over in his bed, Roxas caused Roxas devil to roll off his shoulder, cursing the whole way. The little shoulder demon fell down onto his bed but Roxas took no notice and simply slurped from the can of soda he had grabbed on the way to his room._ Naminé…_ Picturing her smiling at him, her perfect blonde hair glistening in the florescent light radiating down from the school's ceiling, Roxas made himself blush.

"Alright, I'll go," he said aloud, with a goofy smile on his face, still imagining her smiling at him.

"_That's my boy!" _Devil Roxas exclaimed as he climbed back onto Roxas' shoulder, who took another sip of soda. _"You should keep talking to Axel too. I'm sure the guy could give you some advice on how to sex her up as well." _Roxas choked and spit his mouthful of soda across the room. _"You don't want to be a virgin for the rest of your life, right?" _Devil Roxas began to slowly disappear in a cloud of blackness before finally shouting out, _"By the way, don't listen to anything that other guy says about no sex before marriage! He's a prude!"_

Coughing a little and wiping his mouth, Roxas got up to clean up the mess he made before it got sticky. Those visits he got from those guys were always so weird…

* * *

**End note: **Oblivion and Sweet Memory are actually the names of keyblades, if you didn't catch that. Oh, and Roxas' hatred for cucumbers will be explained later xD


	2. Art Club

**Summary: **Roxas likes Naminé. Axel wants to help Roxas get the girl. But when Roxas finally is able to get Naminé's attention with the help of Axel, he finds himself crushing on the redhead as well! Oh, crap. AU. High school setting, somewhat crack-ish. AkuRoku.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Kingdom Hearts Axel and Roxas would have been the main characters, Sora would have never woken up, and the game would be rated M for mature because they'd be banging each other all the time.

**Author's Note:** Thank you for the reviews, favorites and alerts! I'm glad you all liked angel and devil Roxas. They shall make more appearances. And just so you know, only Roxas can see and hear them. So, the next chapter for my other AkuRoku story is coming along kind of slowly, and I was in a somewhat hyper mood so I wrote the next chapter for this one. Hopefully you like it.

* * *

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter Two: Art Club **

When Roxas walked into the art room after school, he was surprised to see a _lot _of people in the room. But unfortunately, Naminé was nowhere in sight. Instead he spotted Axel, who was arguing quite heatedly with the art teacher.

"Come _on, _it's for the project!" Axel was whining.

"No, I cannot allow it. It's a fire hazard," Professor Leon said, crossing his arms.

"Um, well yeah, fire would be, but I'll do it outside or something." Axel argued, talking with his hands wildly. "Come on, it would be so cool! And you know it."

Leon shifted his weight onto his other leg and brought a hand up to his chin, thinking. Roxas could see Axel's expression start to look excited, anticipating the man's response.

After a moment Leon removed his hand and then looked back at Axel. "No," he replied simply; then turned away, going over to observe some artwork that another student was working on.

Axel's expression dropped and he stood frozen for a second or two. Then he threw his arms up into the air again and exclaimed, "Aw, what the hell!" In his frenzy he caught a glimpse of Roxas and quickly regained his composure. He walked over to him and scratched the back of his head. "Hey there, Roxas."

Roxas looked at him with a funny expression. "…Hi," he said unenthusiastically, "What was that about?"

Axel smiled sheepishly, "Oh, that? I just had this really good idea for an art project…but it involved using actual fire on the piece. Obviously, Leon wouldn't go for it."

Roxas pretended to be interested. "Hmm, that sucks. Where's Naminé?"

"Not here yet," Axel replied with a sigh. "Come here; let me get you started on something." With that the redhead grabbed onto Roxas' arm and led him over to a table. He pulled out some paper and grabbed a pencil, placing it in Roxas' hand.

"What do you want me to do…?" Roxas looked at him questioningly. He really didn't want to do art; he just wanted to see Naminé…

"Draw," Axel replied.

_Oh, duh. _"Draw what?" the blond asked, looking down, his mind just as blank as the paper was.

"Whatever comes to mind!"

Sighing, Roxas placed the tip of the pencil to the paper. He ended up pressing down too hard and snapping it when suddenly he heard a cheery voice from across the room.

"Hi everybody!" Naminé greeted sweetly, setting down her things on one of the tables. Roxas felt his palms begin to get sweaty and the pencil slid around uncomfortably in his hand. He looked down at it, trying to keep a good grip with much difficulty. Trying to draw a line with it, he noticed how the tip had broken.

"You might want to sharpen that." Naminé giggled, approaching him.

_Ahhh! Shit, Naminé thinks I'm an idiot now! _Roxas would have smacked himself on the head if she wasn't in the room.

"I'll get it!" Axel said pleasantly, snatching the pencil out of Roxas' hand and turned to go find a sharpener. Roxas was thankful that Axel took the pencil away, it was covered in sweat and Naminé would probably find that pretty icky.

Propping herself on the table with her elbows, Naminé looked up at Roxas, making him blush and quickly wipe his sweaty hands on his pants. "I didn't know you liked art Roxas, I'm so glad you came! We're always looking for new members," she said to him.

_She's glad I came! Whoa…that sounds wrong…okay stop thinking dirty thoughts…_

"Y…yeah…" Roxas managed to spit out. He tried to think of something clever to say but all he could think of was, "Art is good." _Art is good? Oh god, I'm an idiot._

To his surprise Naminé laughed a little bit, "I agree."

Suddenly a pencil came flying out of nowhere at Roxas and he turned to see that Axel had returned and tossed it to him. The boy tried to catch it but ended up somewhat juggling it in his hands before he accidentally smacked it; sending it flying. Right towards Naminé.

She squeaked and tried to protect herself with her hands but the pencil flew forward and smacked her right in the forehead. _Oh shit! Noooo! Her perfect face!_

"Owwie," she said, rubbing the spot.

"Oh! Naminé! I'm so sorry!" Roxas quickly said, "Are you okay?" He looked over at Axel and gave him a death glare of doom. What the hell did he have to _throw_ the pencil for? Roxas sucked at catching things. But Axel just looked amused with the whole situation; he wasn't even reduced to a pile of molten teenager like Roxas was trying to accomplish with his evil stare.

Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, Naminé nodded her head. "I'm fine, it was just a pencil. No need to freak."

"Yeah, Roxas, it was just a pencil," Axel repeated with a sly grin.

_Yeah, I think I got that, asshole. _Roxas thought bitterly.

"Hey, Naminé, your artwork came back from Hollow Bastion's art show! You won some awards!" some fat kid Roxas thought was named Pence interrupted, carrying a box full of drawings.

All of a sudden everyone stopped what they were doing and crowded around the fat kid. Pence set the box down on the table and Naminé began taking her drawings out of it, looking to see what awards she had won.

Roxas stared. The art pieces were drawn by crayon and he knew enough about art to know that that medium wasn't a popular choice by artists. Everyone seemed so impressed by her work…and Roxas could only wonder why. It seriously looked like it was drawn by a third grader.

"Wow, Naminé! You won first place in the creativity category!" someone behind her exclaimed, as everyone looked at the drawing. It was of spiky haired boy with two freakish looking friends, one looked like a duck…and Roxas couldn't really figure out what the other one was. Were those art judges on crack? This didn't seem like art at all to him. He was expecting some kind of Leonardo Divinchi shit, not artwork to rival a kindergartner.

But Naminé looked really happy. And this made Roxas happy; he decided he better take Axel's advice and try to compliment it.

"Hey, Naminé, that's a neat drawing," he chipped in. Wow. That actual didn't sound that bad. He didn't stammer or anything. Roxas smiled to himself proudly.

Naminé turned to him with a huge grin. "Thanks Roxas! I don't know where I got the inspiration for it, it kind of just came to me one day, you know? Actually, that's how all my inspiration comes to me, but anyways, it was, like, soooo weird, because I tried to get the crayons to blend together but it didn't really work because they're made out of wax and wax is what candles are made of so then Axel suggested trying to melt it with his lighter but I said no-"

Nodding his head up and down, Roxas stared at her. Doing that 'I'm smiling and nodding because I have no idea what you're talking about' thing. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything because now it seemed like she'd gone into this really huge ramble about art that, quite honestly, Roxas didn't care about. Roxas had always wondered how girls could just go on and on talking and talking. Personally, the boy wasn't much of a talker. How was it humanly possible for a girl's mouth to go that fast _(gah, dirty thoughts again, get your mind out of the gutter, Roxas!) _and be able to produce words anyways? It was like girls had their own language when they talked to each other too, and in order for boys to understand they would need some kind of remote control to make them go in slow motion. Yeah, Roxas needed to get himself one of those.

"-you know what I mean?" Naminé finished, looking at Roxas eagerly, awaiting an answer.

_Crap. _Roxas really wished he hadn't zoned out and listened instead now. He looked over at Axel, in desperate need of some help. If only the redhead could give him a sign. Maybe he could transfer brainwaves between the two of them. It was worth a shot. _Axel, what should I say? What should I say? _Squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his teeth, Roxas tried to send the message. Then he opened them, looking at Axel, awaiting a response. Axel only looked at Roxas like he had just seen the boy dancing around the room in his underwear singing 'Hakuna Matata'. _Double crap. _That was a dumb idea. Why did he even bother? Now he probably looked like an idiot to everyone for making a face that made him look constipated.

"Roxas?" Naminé spoke his name, her grin fading.

"Oh!" He turned back to her and replied quickly, "Sorry, y-yeah, I know exactly what you mean!"

Her grin returned, much to Roxas' delight. "Oh, good! Well, then maybe you could show me!" She grabbed his arm and Roxas felt like his legs and turned into jelly and his heart into mush. Show her what? _Oh crap, crap, crap._

She dragged him over to the table where the paper and pencil was. Plopping down on a stool, she gazed at him expectantly. Roxas looked back and forth between her, the pencil, and the paper. He racked his brain, trying desperately to recall what she had been talking about earlier. Something about wax and Axel? Suddenly he pictured a half-naked Axel rubbing wax on himself seductively. _WHAT THE FUCK, BRAIN?! _Roxas cried out in his mind. _Not cool. That was insanely disturbing. _Roxas really hated his brain sometimes. It made him act like an idiot most of the time. Sure, his brain was pretty smart, that's why he was in advanced math with Naminé. He always did well on his schoolwork and was one of the top in his class. But when it came to social life, Roxas' brain was as useless as Britney Spears' parenting skills (though maybe it didn't endanger babies quite as much as she did). That's why he had such a lack of friends. Plus, his brain tended to produce those annoying guys who popped up on his shoulder every once in a while.

Speak of the devil, little Roxas devil appeared suddenly on Roxas' shoulder. _"Check it out!" _he exclaimed, pointing at Naminé. She was leaning forward and tapping her fingers on the desk, waiting for Roxas to do something. This had caused her shirt to open a little and expose her cleavage. What little of it she had anyways. But Roxas wasn't picky, boobs were boobs. He could care less how big they were. Now, if they were _too _big, that's when there was a problem. Roxas' great Aunt Ruth tended to suffocate Roxas in her hugs with her giant pair of jubblies whenever she came to visit. No, Roxas knew from experience, big boobs were overrated.

"_Touch her boob!" _devil Roxas commanded, staring at her chest hungrily.

"_No!" _Little Roxas angel came to the rescue, crossing his arms and sticking his chin up into the air. _"You will not let Roxas think about Namine that way! She is a sweet and innocent girl, who needs to be appreciated for her soul, and not her body!"_

"_Psssh, oh please!" _devil Roxas laughed. _"Since when do guys ever think of girls as more than just a body? We need an effin slow motion inducer just to understand what the hell they're saying after all!"_

"_Roxas would never use a girl just for her body, isn't that right Roxas?" _the angel asked him expectantly. Roxas looked down at both of them, torn. Okay, so he didn't really know much about Naminé's personality, but he wanted to. But he also thought she was really pretty and that's what first had started his crush on her.

"_No," _he said to them through his mind. _"I would never use Naminé like that. I want to get to know her."_

Devil Roxas crossed his arms and huffed, while the angel smiled sweetly and patted Roxas' neck in praise. _"I knew it," _he said happily.

"_Oh, come on, Roxas!" _the horned and pitch forked other whined. _"You don't have to lie to us! Just to her. You can tell her that you like her for her personality all you want, but we'll always know the truth. Your secret's safe with us."_

"_Oh, quiet you!" _Angel Roxas yelled, removing his halo from his head and flinging it at the devil in a Sailor-Moon-worthy motion. The devil screamed and disappeared when the halo cut him right in half. The halo came flying back like a boomerang and the angel caught it triumphantly.

Roxas was getting really frustrated. He did not need those two right now. He needed to know what Namine wanted him to do! Thankfully, Axel came to the rescue, placing his hand on Roxas' left shoulder, right on the little Roxas angel. _"Eeep!" _the angel squeaked as the giant hand came down and crushed him. _Yes! _Roxas jumped up into the air internally. _Those two are gone now. _Axel leaned over his right shoulder, his breath brushing against Roxas' skin, making him tense a little bit. Roxas figured this was only because he had pictured him earlier doing something Roxas would rather not see in real life anytime soon.

Whispering into his ear, Axel said, "Naminé wants you to draw something using the crosshatch technique. Get going."

_Phew. Thank you, Axel. _

_Wait, huh? _Roxas turned towards him and hissed, "What the fuck is the crosshatch technique?"

Stepping back, Axel looked at him in bewilderment; then turned to Naminé. She had received a text on her phone and now wasn't even looking at them as her thumbs flew at rapid speed as she texted them back. "Excuse us for a moment, Naminé," Axel said to her and she looked up at them a moment to say, "okay," before returning to her phone.

Spinning Roxas around and grabbing his arm, Axel pulled him to the corner of the art room. "Why the hell did you agree to do it if you didn't know how?"he asked incredulously once they were out of earshot.

"I-I didn't know I was agreeing to anything!" Roxas stammered. "I kinda…sorta zoned out when she was talking to me."

Axel gaped at him in disbelief. "You _zoned_ out? Man, I thought you liked this girl."

"I do!" the boy protested.

"You're not going to get anywhere by not listening to her," Axel scolded, leaning back and crossing his arms. "You need even more help than I thought."

Roxas crossed his arms right back at Axel. "Well, you weren't exactly helping by throwing that pencil at me."

"Dude, how was I supposed to know you wouldn't catch it? I set it up perfectly for you to catch in front her, to show her how smooth you are. It's not my fault you're as clumsy as all hell."

Oh. Roxas said nothing and looked at the ground.

Slightly annoyed, Axel sighed and whipped out a pen from his pocket. He reached down and grabbed Roxas' hand, catching the boy by surprise. Wow. Axel's hand was really warm. The redhead clicked the pen tip out and began to draw on Roxas' palm. Roxas looked between his hand and Axel's face as he drew. A look of deep concentration was on his face as he drew a picture of fire, the lines crossing each other in little x's to form the picture. When he was done he simply clicked the pen again and put it in his pocket, releasing Roxas' hand. Roxas could still feel the heat of where Axel's fingers had been as he looked down on the really artistic looking fire.

"That's how you do crosshatch," Axel told him as Roxas admired his artwork. "Naminé was talking about how hard the technique is for her and she wanted to know if you could do it. Now go over there and try not to make a fool out of yourself again."

With a quick nod of thanks, Roxas walked back over to Naminé, studying the technique Axel had showed him. He sat down nervously in front of her and she smiled, waiting. He took a deep breath, picked up the pencil, and brought it down to the paper, beginning to draw. Not quite sure what to draw, he ended up just making a poor attempt at a dog, trying his best to imitate what Axel had done on his hand. When he was done, he looked down at it in disgust. It looked like a piece of shit. Literally. But to his surprise, Naminé jumped up and ran over to look at it, gazing over his shoulder. Roxas felt himself get more nervous and his palms started to sweat again.

"Wooooooow!" Naminé breathed. "You're so good at that!" she exclaimed.

"I-I am?" Roxas stammered. What the hell? _Well, it does look pretty good compared to her drawings_, he thought guiltily.

"Yeah! You have to show me how to do it!" Naminé snatched the pencil from his hand and began to draw a cat to chase his dog. She tried doing the crosshatching but was failing miserably.

"Here…" Roxas said nervously, raising a shaking hand to take hers, but not before wiping the sweat from it on his pants. He lightly touched her hand and began to guide it. _Holy crap! I can't believe I'm doing this!_

"You have to do it a lot slower, see?" He demonstrated for her, giving the cat fur texture with the little x's. "If you try to do it quickly it comes out sloppy."

"Oh…" Naminé replied, her eyes following where he was taking her hand.

_This is awesome!_ Roxas thought, grinning stupidly.

"Alright, art club is over, time to go home," said Professor Leon out of nowhere, walking back into the room. A few kids groaned as everyone grabbed their things and began to file out of the area.

"Well, thanks Roxas!" Naminé said cheerfully, pulling her hand away from his. "I'll see you later!" And with that she dashed off before he could say goodbye.

Axel came over to him with a smirk as Roxas gathered his things. "That seemed to have went pretty well," he said to him, leaning forward so they were at eye level.

"Yeah…" Roxas breathed dreamily. He got to touch her hand! And he didn't even puke or anything!

As they began to leave the room, Axel followed him. Since it was after school, the janitors had already started cleaning so there was a "Caution: wet floor" sign in the hallway. The two schoolmates could see some of the other kids who were leaving slipping and sliding on the wet floors ahead of them.

"So what did you think of Naminé's artwork?" Axel asked him, his hands shoved in his pockets.

Roxas hesitated, before saying, "It was nice."

"Uh-huh," the redhead nodded with suspicious tone in his voice. "Now tell me what you really thought of it."

Roxas looked up at Axel in surprise. "What?" he asked him as he slipped a little on the floor.

"Oh come on, you can tell me." Axel grinned.

"It…it kinda sucked," the younger boy said honestly, sliding a little but regaining his balance as he said this.

Axel laughed. "Yeah," he agreed. "I thought I was the only one who thought that. It's a good sign to see that you don't think she's completely perfect."

Wondering what Axel meant by that, Roxas opened his mouth to respond, but not before he lost his footing on the floor. "Waaah!" was all that came out, as he flew backwards. Suddenly he felt Axel catch him in his arms and they slid around on the floor like a pair of two male ice skaters for a few seconds. Finally, Axel lost his footing as well and they both fell to the floor.

"Ahh…" Roxas let out a moan as he rubbed the back of his head, which had hit the hard tiles with much force. He looked up to find that he was on his back underneath Axel, who was gazing at him worriedly.

"You okay?" Axel asked him sincerely, not really fazed by the fact that he was pinning the blond to the floor, their faces inches apart.

Though Roxas definitely realized how close Axel's body was pressed up against his and felt heat rise to his face. "Yeah, I'm fine." He managed to say.

Axel simply sat back and stood, offering Roxas a hand. The boy reached up and took it, but as Axel pulled him up Roxas slipped again. He fell forward this time, right into Axel's arms.

"Whoa," Axel laughed, catching him. Roxas quickly removed his head from Axel's chest and leaned back, noticing that the redhead had his arms wrapped around him and was smiling down at him.

"You got it now?" the older teen asked him, wondering if Roxas had regained his balance yet.

"Yeah," Roxas said quickly, pushing Axel's arms off of himself and turning to walk ahead. Why was he blushing?

"Well, that was weird," Axel said nonchalantly from behind him.

_Gee, you think?_ Roxas thought sourly, trying his best not to focus on how good Axel smelled. He quickly tried to change the subject, "Thanks again for giving me advice on Naminé," not looking at him as he spoke.

"No problem," Axel replied, and Roxas could just picture the guy shrugging as he said it. "You need a ride home?"

Roxas stopped and contemplated it for a moment and the redhead walked ahead of him to the doors that led to the student parking lot. Axel turned and crossed his arms, waiting for a reply.

"U-um, no, thanks," Roxas muttered. "My mom can come get me."

"…Alright," Axel replied with an odd tone of voice before walking out the door. It was almost like he sounded disappointed…

* * *

Roxas sat down at his desk with a sigh and tried to start on his math homework. When he flipped his notebook open he caught a flash of blackness on his palm, so he turned his hand over and looked at it. Oh yeah, there was the drawing Axel had drew on his hand. Roxas was kind of sad to see that some of it had rubbed off because of his sweaty hands. It was such a cool picture.

"_Axel's pretty hot, isn't he?" _Roxas devil popped up on his right shoulder, causing Roxas to jump. _Oh no…not twice in one day!_

"_Oh yes, twice in one day." _The devil smirked. _"You've got a crush on Axelllllllll! You've got a crush on Axelllllllllllll!" _To Roxas' horror, his evil other began to dance on his shoulder, singing.

"_He does not!"_ Roxas angel appeared, scowling. _"He likes Naminé!"_

"_He likes Naminé AND Axel." _Roxas devil corrected. _"There's nothing wrong with that! Hell, they could have a threesome!"_

"_Yes there is something wrong with that!" _Angel Roxas replied. _"That would mean Roxas is gay! Which there is no way Roxas is. One, because being gay is not the way! And two, Roxas likes Naminé!"_

"_Bitch, please." _The devil laughed. _"That doesn't mean Roxas is gay. It means he's bisexual! Duh!"_

Roxas groaned and shut his eyes, holding his head in his hands as they argued. He really didn't need this right now. "_Guys, I don't like Axel, I like Naminé. Now please go away, I'm trying to do my homework!"_

"_I told you!" _Angel Roxas said, sticking his tongue out at the devil.

Devil Roxas sighed and poked Roxas' ear with his pitchfork, making Roxas gasp and bring a hand to his ear to rub the spot. _"Roxie, dear. Didn't I tell you that I'm always looking out for your best interests? If you don't like Axel, then please tell me why you got all flustered when your bodies were pressed together, hmm?"_

"_It was just awkward, that's all!" _Roxas argued.

"_It was a little thing I like to call sexual tension. And you liked it. Admit it. You did. You'd like to have your body pressed against his all night long!"_

"Shut up!" Roxas cried out loud. Sheer will power caused both of his others to disappear, thankfully. The blond rubbed his forehead and tried to focus on the math problems in front of him. He did not like Axel. He liked Naminé. Naminé and Naminé alone.

He removed his hand from his forehead and noticed the fire on his palm again. His mind flew back to the memory of Axel grasping his hand, drawing on it. That nice, warm hand, that made Roxas feel all tingly inside. A feeling identical to the one he got around Naminé.

_Shit. _

_

* * *

  
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**End note: **Meh, I wasn't sure who to make the art teacher. Leon kind of seems like the strong, silent, artistic type to me, so there we go. Let me know if you can think of anything funny I can add to this, I like sharing ideas. Review please!


	3. Tutoring

**Disclaimer: **DO NOT OWN. DO NOT OWN D:

**Author's note: **Thank you to all of you who faved, reviewed, and alerted! Special thanks to my beta, **Kuraieshi, **who beta'd chapters 3 through 8!

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter Three: Tutoring**

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**

As Roxas walked down the crowded hallways he noticed there was more squealing and jumping up and down from the girls than normal. This was not good because Roxas couldn't help but notice how their boobs were bouncing up and down. He vaguely wondered why they were doing this arousing act, it might have to do with the pastel colored papers they were looking at, but Roxas was having a hard time focusing on what was in their hands.

Luckily one of the papers flew forward and slapped Roxas across the face. It got stuck in his hair, so he reached up and removed it. He looked down at it; it was purple, decorated with flowers and hearts.

"_SPRING FLING THIS FRIDAY_!" it screamed up at him in bubble letters. "_Be sure to ask that special someone! Casual Dress – this means no school uniforms_!"

Roxas kind of just stared at it blankly before tossing it aside. He went back to examining girls' chests as he walked to his math class.

When he arrived, he was surprised to see Axel sitting in his seat casually, sucking on a lollipop. This was surprising to say the least. Axel actually came to class on time and _before _Roxas? That was a first.

The redhead looked up at Roxas as he entered, removing the lollipop from his mouth and licking his lips. And it was hot.

"Hey, Roxas," he greeted, waving at him with the lollipop.

"H-hi." Roxas stammered, quickly walking to his seat and setting his stuff down, not looking back at Axel. _I like women. I don't like men. I like boobs. Axel does not have boobs. Axel has penis. I don't like penis._

"_You just keep telling yourself that, darling," _Roxas devil said as he appeared, smirking.

_Ah, great…_

"_Go away. I'm in class right now!" _he pleaded with his devil.

"_I promise I'll go away once class actually starts." _Roxas devil winked. _"Holy shit, look at that!" _he cried suddenly, pointing behind Roxas frantically.

Roxas quickly turned around to see what the devil was pointing at, foolishly thinking it might be something important. Turned out it was Axel, who was drawing on his desk, still engaged in eating his lollipop in a very sexy manner. Roxas stared, transfixed for a moment, before he suddenly realized he was quite turned on by this. He quickly turned around, his face red, and shuffled through his papers, trying to get the image out of his head.

"_I hate you," _Roxas told the devil mentally, while Roxas devil laughed hysterically.

"_Oh man. I didn't know you had it that bad. You wish you were that lollipop, don't you?"_

"_I do not!" _Roxas protested. _"Hey." _Suddenly he realized that his innocent other had failed to appear yet. _"Where's my angel?"_

"_That fruitcake? Pssh," _Roxas devil waved an apathetic hand at Roxas. _"Let's just say he's a little tied up right now. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge."_

"_You're kidding me!" _Roxas cried in surprise. Was he implying that he himself had tied Roxas angel up somehow? _"That's not fair; I'm supposed to get opinions from both of you guys!"_

"_Says who?" _the devil asked, crossing his arms. _"There's no rules, you silly little child. Even if there were, it's not like I'd follow them anyways."_

Roxas groaned and thumped his head down onto his desk. He hated his life.

"Hi Roxas!" he suddenly heard a sweet voice exclaim. He bolted upright. _Naminé!_

She smiled at him and took her seat, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear in that cute way she always did.

"Hi…" he said shyly, passing up his homework when Xigbar requested class to do so.

"_Hubba hubba! Ow! Ow!" _Roxas devil wolf whistled at Naminé. _"You have such good taste in women and men, Roxas."_

"_For the last time, he doesn't like men!" _Angel Roxas cried indignantly, popping up on Roxas' right shoulder, pulling ropes off of himself.

"_Oh and you should talk, girly man!" _Roxas devil huffed. _"At least Roxas doesn't wear a dress!"_

The angel stared, open-mouthed at the devil, clearly insulted. _"It. Is. Not. A. Dress," _he hissed. _"It's a robe!"_ His face was turning red, and he looked down at his clothing, which looked like a Greek robe slung over his shoulder, exposing a part of his chest.

"_Whatever you say, cross-dresser!"_ The horned other smirked.

"_I'll have you know that this robe is very flattering to my fine physique," _Roxas angel countered, crossing his arms.

"_Fine physique?!" _Devil Roxas exclaimed incredulously. _"Don't make me laugh!"_

"_Oh my God, you guys have the _same_ physique!" _Roxas yelled at them, disgusted at how ridiculous they were being.

"_Can you believe he tied me up, Roxas?" _the angel quickly changed the subject, trying to get Roxas to take his side.

"_Oh, will you look at that, class started!" _Roxas devil exclaimed unconvincingly, pretending he hadn't heard his opposite. _"Well, I promised I would go, catch you later Roxas, my man!"_ And with that he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

Roxas angel let out an exasperated sigh and said before disappearing in a puffy white cloud, _"He would have never left if I hadn't shown up. Well, I'll let you get on with your studies, Roxas."_

_Phew. Finally, they left. _Roxas thought, relieved, as he wrote down the Pythagorean Theorem in his notes.

As the end of class neared, Roxas felt a wad of paper hit the back of his head. It bounced off one of the many spikes of his hair and managed to land in front of him on his desk. He turned around to see who had thrown it at him, scanning the seats behind him. Everyone was innocently copying down notes, not even looking up from their papers. Everyone, that was, except for Axel. Axel was grinning at him, the lollipop stick hanging lazily from his mouth. _Oh God, not this again._

"Open it," he mouthed to Roxas, pointing to the paper.

Roxas gave him a curious look before turning back to his desk and uncrumpling the paper. It was another one of those 'Spring Fling' flyers, and on the side of it, Axel had scribbled, 'So, you going to this stupid thing?'

_Haha, yeah right. _Roxas thought, and scribbled those exact words on the paper, tossing it back to Axel when Xigbar wasn't looking.

When Roxas got the paper back he saw that Axel had written, 'You should.'

'How come?' What the hell was Axel getting at?

'Girls love these things. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed them in the halls this morning.' Axel had drawn a little winking smiley face after this. 'Anyway, you should ask Naminé.'

Oh. 'Like I could get the courage to do that,' Roxas wrote back honestly, quickly glancing over at the girl they were talking about to make sure she couldn't see the paper.

'That's why you've got me,' Roxas read once the paper was returned to him. He mentally wished that he did indeed have Axel, then quickly pushed the thought from his began to write back, but to his dismay he saw a hand fly down and snatch the paper from underneath his pencil.

"Roxas. What has gotten into you lately?" Xigbar sneered down at him, and the blond could feel himself begin to flush as the rest of the class stared at him. "First you let Naminé copy your homework; then you pass notes back and forth with Axel? Tsk, tsk," Xigbar shook a finger at him as he said this sarcastically. "Well, I'm sure the rest of the class is wondering what you two were talking about. Let's see here." Roxas could only stare in horror as Xigbar lifted the paper to eye level so he could read it aloud.

Somebody up in that big, blue, vast space called the sky must like Roxas, because at that moment the bell rang, and the class got up to leave, just itching to get out of math. The boy sighed in relief, quickly gathering his things and tried to leave before Professor Xigbar could notice.

"Roxas. Axel. Get back here."

Both of the classmates froze in their steps, wearing identical expressions of dread on their faces. They slowly turned around, glancing at each other as they did so.

"Y-yes, Professor Xigbar?" Roxas stammered. _Please don't give me detention again…_

Xigbar read the rest of what they had wrote on the paper before replying, "It seems like you two have become friends."

To Roxas' surprise, Axel replied, "Yup."

…_What? _Roxas tried to fight a grin, but he lost the battle, and he ended up standing there stupidly with a twitching smile. Axel considered him a friend!

Xigbar studied them for a few seconds before he asked, "Axel, do you have any idea what your current grade is in this class?"

"Uhh…" Axel laughed nervously. "I'm guessing that I'm failing?" He shrugged, waving a hand in the air as he said, "Fine, I'll do the next couple of homework's to catch up."

"You have an 18 percent."

"Oh…"

"I'm going to make you two an offer," Xigbar continued. "Both of you two can have detention again, and you can fail high school, Axel." The redhead winced. "Or…Roxas you can tutor this guy's sorry ass and help him pass. I don't want to have him _again _next year. And to be quite honest I really don't feel like filling out more detention slips, and I've got a hot date tonight, I don't want to cancel because of you two. Axel, you don't really have a choice in the matter, so it's up to you what you want to do, Roxas," Xigbar finished, addressing him.

Roxas bite his lip and looked up at Axel, who was looking at him pleadingly. _Shit. Puppy dog eyes…can't resist…gah…_

"_Don't do it Roxas! You don't want anything to do with Axel ever again. Ow!" _Roxas angel said, appearing on his shoulder, underneath Roxas devil, who was attempting to strangle him. They rolled around for a bit, struggling, before the angel spoke again, _"This man crush thing is no good."_

_Oh God…twice in one _period_?! This is getting so ridiculous…_

"_Do it Roxas!" _the devil cried, stabbing the angel with his pitchfork. _"You two can be alone together and you'll have your chance to tackle him and rip all of his clothes off!"_

Roxas stared at the floor, his fists shaking slightly at his sides. _What should I do…?_

"_Just take the detention," _Angel Roxas managed to say, arms shaking as he tried holding back the devil's pitchfork.

"_But…if I take another detention, I'll lose my honors status…"_ Roxas told him.

"_Yeah, dumbass!" _Roxas devil yelled as he brought the pitchfork down on the angel, causing the innocent other to disappear. He wiped sweat from his brow and placed the blunt end of the pitchfork on Roxas' shoulder, leaning on it to rest. _"Good thinking, Roxie. That excuse is believable enough for that guy."_

"_But it's the truth! I really can't get another detention!"_

"_Sure, sure. Whatever you say. Do the math, Roxie, you're smart. You plus Axel equals a sexplosion! Oh yeaaaah."_ As he said this, he made a lewd gesture with his hips, imitating humping someone.

"Roxas?" Xigbar broke through his thoughts, causing Roxas devil to disappear with a satisfied wink.

The blond sighed and looked back at Axel. Puppy dog eyes looked right back. Axel could possibly be the only person in the universe to make puppy dog eyes look sexy.

"Sure, I'll tutor him," Roxas finally muttered.

A wide grin crossed Axel's face and Xigbar clapped Roxas on the back. "You're a good kid, Roxas." Then the teacher turned to Axel, pointing a threatening finger. "You. I better see some improvement from you, if you skip out on the kid or don't listen to him; I'll give you detention for the rest of the month."

Axel's smile faded. "Yes sir…" he mumbled.

As the two classmates walked out of the room, Roxas felt Axel grab his shoulder, pulling him around to face him, "Hey, Roxas, I just wanted to say-"

"I have to go to class now, Axel," Roxas interrupted quickly, not really wanting to deal with him right now, deal with the feeling he got from Axel touching him; those butterflies in his stomach. Well, more like rabid, sex-maniac butterflies, who wanted to have their way with Axel.

Before Axel could reply, he turned and rushed off to class earlier than the bell could ring.

--

When it came time for lunch, Roxas sat in his usual spot in the cafeteria. He would always sit at the same small table, away from everyone else and work on what homework he had so far for that day. He didn't really mind, seeing as he didn't have any friends anyway.

This is why it was such a surprise when he saw someone set their lunch down on the table. Rabid, horny butterflies returned. Guess who?

"Hey, Roxas, mind if I sit here?" Axel flashed him that goddamn sexy smile.

_Yes. _"No," Roxas ended up replying. "What do you want?"

"Well, you ran off on me this morning and I never got a chance to talk to you, so here I am," Axel said simply, sitting down and taking a bite out of an apple.

When Roxas didn't reply, Axel just continued, "So. You have to tutor me now. That's bound to be some fun."

"…Yeah…" Roxas mumbled, playing with his food. Okay, he could do this. No reason to make things awkward. Axel thought that he only liked Naminé anyway. The redhead couldn't possibly have a clue that Roxas liked picturing him naked…right?

"So, whose house do you want to do it at?" Axel asked him nonchalantly, taking another bite of the apple.

Roxas cringed. "It doesn't matter to me," he said as unenthusiastically as possible. Secretly he thought about how awesome it would be to be able to go to Axel's house. He cursed himself for having such stalker-ish thoughts.

Axel had moved on to a chocolate chip cookie and asked, "Why not ath yourth toothday then?" with his mouth full, spraying some cookie crumbs across the table as he spoke. Alright. Well, that was the first thing Axel did all day that Roxas did not find attractive.

"Sure, I'm free today," Roxas said, after it took him a second to translate what Axel had said – or more like sprayed. To be honest, Roxas was free pretty much _every _day, but he wasn't about to admit that right now.

"So what's your number?" Axel suddenly asked, pulling out his red razor phone.

Swallowing a mouthful of food, the blond tried his best to ignore the feeling of horny butterflies in his stomach again. Axel asked for his number! No one had ever done that before.

"Mine's 813-5683," Axel told him as he waited for Roxas to pull out his phone and turn it on. "Got it memorized?"

"U-uh, I think so," Roxas stammered as he glanced around nervously, making sure there were no teachers around who would take his phone before he typed the numbers in. He then had to look up his own number in his phone, since he did not have his own number, unlike Axel, memorized. Roxas proceeded to tell him, and the redhead glanced up after he had punched it into his phone.

"Hey, look who it is!" Axel commented suavely, inclining his head over to a nearby table. Roxas glanced up to see Naminé sitting down with her friends. Gah! Double horny-butterfly rape in his stomach ensued.

Axel nudged him, "Now's your chance to go ask her to the dance."

The younger boy blew some air out of his mouth, "No way." He laid his head down on the table, not touching his food.

"Fine. If you won't, then I will," Axel replied with a smirk and pushed his chair back to get up.

Sitting up abruptly, Roxas waved his arms at Axel in a frantic way that made the other boy lean away from him. "No!"

Axel's grin only widened and he got up, walking over to her table confidently.

_Oh my god._ If _both _his crushes went out with each other, he didn't know what he would do. Some possibilities might include hitting his head against the wall repeatedly, dropping out of school, and moving to Antarctica. Or maybe he would just stalk them and have sexual fantasies about them.

He watched in agony as Axel placed one hand on the table and leaned in closer to Naminé. "Hey, Naminé," he greeted smoothly.

She looked up at him in surprise and blushed a little. "Hi Axel…what's up?"

Roxas wished that a natural disaster would occur and everyone would have to evacuate school. Though maybe that was bad because it took forever for the school buses to get there during an emergency and they would probably all end up dying.

"Not much, I was just wondering if you were planning on going to that Spring Fling…thing," the redhead said to her, flashing that smile of his that made every girl in school plus Roxas swoon.

Naminé smiled shyly at Axel and replied, "Yeah, why?"

Roxas wondered if stabbing himself with a plastic knife would have any effect. Probably not.

Brushing back a lock of hair that was dangling from his head, Axel asked, "Got anyone to go with?"

Naminé's friends glanced at her with huge smiles on their faces and then turned to gaze at Axel; obviously they were fans of him. The blonde girl stared at him for a few seconds before answering him quietly, "No…"

Axel smiled triumphantly and Roxas pushed back his chair, planning on running into the bathroom and locking himself in a stall until school ended. Before he could react though, he heard Axel say with much excitement, "Great! Wanna go with Roxas then?"

Wait. _What?!_

Roxas quickly got up and glanced towards the door, intending to make a break for it, but to his horror, cafeteria monitor Xemnas was guarding it. Damn. He looked back over to where Naminé was sitting and saw both of his crushes looking right back at him. Axel was smiling mischievously and Naminé was looking hesitant. It was a wonder that his palms didn't turn into Niagara Falls right then and there.

The redhead motioned for him to come over and he felt himself obey, moving towards them slowly like a zombie. Once the boy was close enough, Axel reached over and pushed him forwards gently, keeping his arm on Roxas' shoulder.

"So, what do you say Naminé?" Axel looked back at her expectantly. The girl glanced away and bit her lip. Roxas wasn't able to say anything, just kind of stare and hope that he wasn't drooling.

"Go on, Naminé…" one of her friends encouraged her. "Yeah, go with Roxas, so I can go with Axel!" he heard one of them whisper. Finally, to Roxas' complete and utter surprise, she turned to him and smiled sweetly.

"Sure!"

All he could do was stare in disbelief and stand there frozen. When the bell rang, Axel needed to help guide Roxas out of the cafeteria; he was still so overcome with shock.

--

"I can't believe you did that!" Roxas cried angrily at Axel as they walked out to his car.

For the rest of the school day Roxas kind of just sat through his classes and didn't pay attention, caught in a daze. He couldn't believe that Naminé had agreed to go to a dance with him! Did it mean she liked him? Was it a date?

But then Roxas' happiness had fled with its tail in between its legs when he realized something very important: he couldn't dance even if his life depended on it.

The redhead just laughed and replied, "I did you a favor; I owe you since you're the one who's going to be helping me graduate, after all."

Roxas immediately crossed his arms and pouted when he got into the car. Axel had screwed him over big time. Even if he did technically get him a date with Naminé, Roxas was going to make a fool of himself. The anger he was feeling towards his newest companion stomped out the butterflies in his stomach, for the time being.

Apparently Axel remembered the way to Roxas' place, because he began making his way there without the blond's help. They drove in silence for a while, but soon Axel noticed Roxas' obvious tension. Since Oblivion was blasting through the car's speakers, Axel had to yell his next words, "What the hell is wrong with you? You should be happy!"

Roxas glared at him. "Maybe I would be if I could dance!" he yelled back at him over the music.

Axel reached over and turned the music down, so it could only be heard faintly. "Is that all you're worried about?" he asked sincerely.

With a huff, Roxas replied, "No. I can think about a few other things. Like what I'm going to wear, what I'm going to say, how I'm going to get there, do I have to pick her up and take her home…" he trailed off when he realized Axel was laughing at him. "What's so funny?" he asked bitterly.

"You."

"Why am I funny?" Roxas asked defensively, as they pulled into his driveway. He really did not see any humor in this situation at all.

"It's just cute how clueless you are. I have my work cut out for me," Axel replied slyly as he exited the vehicle.

Roxas slammed the car door angrily as he got out. "I am _not_ cute!" Secretly he wondered what Axel meant by it, and he was contemplating whether he liked being called 'cute' by him or not. 'Cute' could be bad, if Axel thought of him as the little kid kind of cute. Or, that could be good; if Axel was a pedophile and liked little kids…Roxas hoped that Axel meant 'cute' in a non-pedophile way though.

As they made their way up to the front door for their study session, Axel turned towards him. "Adorable then?" he questioned, offering another choice of words.

Roxas felt himself begin to grow hot. Why was Axel saying all of these things about him? He grunted in response, pushing past Axel in order to unlock the door and go inside. The two of them stood awkwardly in the doorway for a few seconds before Axel said lamely, "Nice place."

The blond rolled his eyes and kicked off his shoes. He glanced around, trying to think of the best place they could study. When he turned his head back to look at Axel he had found that his classmate had already made his way into Roxas' living room. The redhead was going through his mom's CDs, tsk'ing at some and tossing them aside. Roxas grabbed his backpack and ran into the room.

"Hey, be careful with those!" he said, trying to grab them out of Axel's hands, but since the redhead was so much taller than him it didn't really work out so well. "What are you doing anyway?"

Ignoring him, Axel opened a CD case, inserting it into the CD player. Then he turned suddenly and _grabbed_ Roxas, pulling him in against himself. Roxas gasped, looking down to see that Axel had his hand around his waist. Axel smiled down at him and took Roxas' hand in his own. Roxas felt his heart begin to race wildly. What was Axel doing?!

A cheesy, slow romantic song began to play and Axel said, "Before we start on math, why don't _I_ tutor _you_ first? I'm sure you'd love to slow dance with Naminé at the dance right?"

The younger male nodded slowly, staring at Axel. In truth, he'd love to be able to do more than just dance with _both _of them…

"Well then, don't worry, it's not that hard," Axel reassured him, reaching down and placing Roxas' other hand on his shoulder, then replacing his hand on the blond's waist. "When I step forward, you step back, and vice versa. Try to do it in time with the music." Axel proceeded to lead Roxas into a slow dance, and they swayed together. Every once in a while Roxas would step on Axel's foot, and he quickly stammered an apology. The redhead just kept telling him it was alright though. Soon Roxas was able to relax a bit and surprised himself by laying his head against Axel's chest. He was even more surprised to feel the older boy's heart beating just as quickly as his own.

"You wanna lead now?" Axel asked him after the song was over and a new one started. "Naminé will probably want you to."

"U-um, okay," the blond said, lifting his head off of Axel. Roxas now put his hand delicately on Axel's thin waist and the redhead placed his hand on Roxas' shoulder, like a girl would do.

Once he began to lead, Axel laughed, "I would rest my head against you like Naminé probably will, but we seem to have too much of a height difference going on here."

Nervously, Roxas laughed with him as he tried to focus on what he was doing. This dancing thing wasn't too hard, considering how distracting it was to be so close to someone so hot.

"Sorry my hands are so sweaty," he apologized awkwardly, realizing he probably turned Axel's fingers into wrinkly prunes by now because of how wet his hand was.

"I don't care," Axel told him nonchalantly, looking down at him. "And don't worry, Naminé shouldn't either."

Roxas sort of wished Axel would stop mentioning Naminé. He kind of wanted this moment to be just between him and Axel…but Axel probably thought this was nothing special. He was just helping a clueless classmate…right?

After the second song ended Axel pulled away from Roxas and said, "Alright, I think you got the hang of it." He smiled cockily and added, "Professor Axel gives you an A."

Roxas' eyes widened as he pictured 'Professor' Axel removing a pair of bifocals from his face, pushing Roxas down to teach him a him a very sexy lesson on his desk.

"Are you okay, Roxas?" Axel asked him upon seeing the boy's expression.

Roxas blushed. "Y-yeah, I'm fine." Oh God. The horny butterflies had made their return.

Reaching forward, Axel ruffled Roxas' hair affectionately. "You're all set for the dance this Friday then. Don't over-think it and you'll be fine."

Biting his lip, the blond stared at the carpet underneath his feet. He noticed that his feet were actually bigger than Axel's. He tried not to think about that rumor about what shoe size meant and said honestly, "I don't know…I'm still nervous about everything else…"

"Well, how about I pick you up and take you to the dance then? You can just meet Naminé there. If you're still feeling nervous I'll try my best to help."

"Thanks," the blond said, smiling up at him.

Their eyes met, and Roxas was caught up in Axel's emerald green eyes as the third song played:

"_The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful_

_Stop me and steal my breath_

_Emeralds from mountains thrust toward the sky_

_Never revealing their depth_

_Tell me that we belong together"_

Roxas reached over and quickly shut the CD player off. The two of them stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments and they realized that they were still holding onto one another. They quickly let go of each other and backed away, Axel scratching the back of his head.

"So um…let's get started on that math, then…" he said uncomfortably.

Silently, Roxas gathered his math stuff and set it down on the table in front of the couch. Well, didn't that song just choose the perfect awkward moment to play? Talking about thrusting and emeralds and eyes and belonging together. He swore, somebody up in that big, blue, vast space called the sky must hate him.

Roxas opened up to a worksheet and slid it over to Axel once the guy plopped himself down on the couch.

"Find x," Roxas told him, pointing at the triangle on the paper while keeping as much distance between them as he possibly could. It felt like he was going to puke up the horny butterflies and they would go on a rampant Axel raping spree.

For a second, Axel studied the picture before he took a pen out of his pocket to attempt the problem. Roxas looked away from him, trying to calm his stomach down. Barely a second later Axel tapped him on the shoulder, "I'm done."

Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Roxas saw that Axel was smiling cheekily at him. Confused, he looked down at the paper. The triangle had three variables written around it: "3, 5, and x". It was a simple trig problem, where the student had to find the value of "x", but Roxas just wanted to see if Axel could do it. Well, Axel had found "x" alright. "X" was circled on the paper, with an arrow pointing to it and next to the arrow Axel had scribbled, '_there it is_.'

The blond sighed and rubbed his forehead while Axel laughed next to him. Life pretty much sucked at the moment.

* * *

**End note: **The awkward cheesy song was "I'll be" by Edwin McCain. I do not own. Idea is from the amazing Norikuu. Thank you, Sara!

Axel's number, 813-5683, stands for AkuRoku (duh)- LOVE. Those numbers spell "love". Aw.


	4. The Spring Fling Thing

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or "Simple and Clean" by Utada Hikaru. And yes, you should know this song. It was in Kingdom Hearts. If you don't remember it, go look it up on youtube now. NOW.

**Author's Note:** Oh gosh, resubmitting chapters 3,5,6,7, and 8 because they were removed by ffnet for "violating the guidelines" on the upload page. Chapters have been edited, a more detailed author's note about this can be found on chapter 8 :)

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter Four: The Spring Fling...Thing**

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Running a brush through his hair, Roxas watched himself in his bedroom mirror in annoyance as the spikes on his head sprung right back up. Why was he cursed to look like he had chronic bed-head? Seriously. He could never get his hair to look any different.

_That's it hair. You're going down!...Literally._

Roxas took another bite of the pop tart he was eating, then clutched the brush in both hands and pressed it down on his head hard, slowly moving it once more to try to get his hair to lay flat. When he removed it he grinned happily at himself. Yes! He got it to lie flat! But one second later, the spikes sprung right back up to their original place. _Argh!_ Roxas threw the brush across the room and his backpack made an angry buzzing sound at him.

He turned to look at his backpack and raised an eyebrow. Huh? Was it mad at him for disrespecting inanimate objects? As if to answer his question, the backpack buzzed again. Roxas set his pop tart down and cautiously shuffled over to the book bag, afraid it might attack him at any moment. He poked it with his foot and it buzzed at him again and he jumped back. Was it alive? Roxas wondered if he was in some sort of tragedy where he fell in love with both a woman and a man but never got a chance to be with either of them because he was viciously eaten by a book bag. He slowly backed away, trying not to make any sudden moves. Maybe it was like that T-Rex in "Jurassic Park" and could only sense movement. After a minute Roxas noticed that it had stopped making noise and he realized how ridiculous he was being. His backpack wasn't going to eat him…hopefully.

Roxas stepped forward again and unzipped his backpack, searching through it to try to find what had caused the buzzing. He found his cell phone was glowing at the bottom of the bag and grabbed it, flipping it open and seeing that it said: "New Text Message. From: Axel".

Ah, that must have been the source of the buzzing. Silly Roxas. Well, he had never received a text message before so this was new. He clicked the "okay" button to see what it said.

"Hey Rox. I'm on my way, should be there in 15."

It was the night of the Spring Fling dance and apparently Axel was going to be arriving to take Roxas there very soon. Roxas had been trying to get ready for the past two hours. He had taken a shower and made sure to scrub everywhere really good. What if Naminé noticed a grimy spot on him? He couldn't have her thinking he was gross. Axel also had recommended to him to buy a can of "Axe" body spray for men. Axel had said, "How could you go wrong with cologne with a name so similar to my own?" So apparently girls liked it when you smelled like an axe. The mysteries of women. So Roxas had bought a can and sprayed an unhealthy amount on himself. This caused him to go into a choking fit from inhaling it and he had to take another shower because the smell was much too strong. After learning his lesson, he sprayed only a small amount on himself later. Ah, yes. Now he had the perfect amount of the smell of an axe on his body. Then it had come down to choosing the perfect casual outfit. Naminé had only ever seen him in his school uniform, so he had to make sure to impress her with a dashing outfit. After going through his whole closet and trying on all combinations of clothes he had finally settled on khaki cargo pants, a blue shirt to bring out his eyes, and an emo-ish black and white checkered wristband. That emo crap was all the rage now, right? Hopefully Naminé would think he was quite stylish.

It took Roxas about five minutes to figure out how to text Axel back since he had never done it before. Then it took him another five minutes just to text him back the message: "OK." Lame. He wished he had the courage to type something like "Can't wait!" or "What are you wearing?" maybe even "You better be naked when you get here.", but he could never get the guts to do something like that. Roxas wondered how Naminé was so quick at this texting thing. Seriously, it took him forever.

The doorbell rang and Roxas jumped up, feeling his heart jump along with him. That must be Axel. He quickly glanced at himself in the mirror, trying out different poses to make sure he looked okay.

"_You look pretty damn hot, if I do say so myself," _Roxas Devil complimented, popping up on his shoulder. _"Simple, yet sexy. You don't want to overdo it. Then you'd just look desperate."_

"_For once I'll agree with that jerk face. You do look quite dashing." _Roxas Angel nodded when he appeared.

Roxas grinned. It must be true if these two were agreeing. He did a little sexy hip wiggle in front of the mirror as an experiment to see how he would look dancing.

"_Very nice!" _Roxas Devil commented in a Borat-type manner, wiggling his hips along with Roxas. _"Axel won't be able to resist you."_

Angel Roxas cleared his throat. _"Um, don't you mean Naminé?"_

"_Yeah, yeah, her too." _Roxas Devil sighed.

The bell rang again and the devil turned to Roxas, _"Well, have fun, and remember: it's not rape if you shout surprise!"_ and with that he disappeared in a cloud of blackness.

Roxas Angel just stared at the spot where the devil had previously been, looking appalled. _"Roxas, don't listen to what he says, rape is-"_

"_I know." _Roxas assured him. _"I don't plan on raping anyone, don't worry."_

The angel smiled at him. _"Good. Have a nice night, make good choices!" _He then disappeared in his cloud of white.

Roxas shoved the rest of his pop tart in his mouth, ran down the stairs excitedly and opened the door just wide enough to find Axel standing before him. And he almost came in his pants right there, Axel looked so hot.

It was the first time he had ever seen Axel out of the school uniform. He was wearing a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. The top part of the shirt was unbuttoned and Axel's chest was exposed. Roxas wanted to touch it. But he resisted, his eye twitching as a sign of a mental struggle. Axel also was wearing a really nice fitting pair of washed out blue jeans. _Really_ nice fitting. As in, makes-it-easier-to-picture-him-naked nice fitting. And Axel was so tall and so mature for his age. Well, mature looking, not personality wise. For being only eighteen he really didn't look it. He could pass for a teacher if it weren't for the student uniform and the common knowledge that he was a trouble maker. Oh, and those tattoos on his face. No teacher could get a job at his strict private school if they had that. And apparently Axel had almost gotten expelled when he got them, too.

"Heh-doh," Roxas said with a mouthful of pop tart. Shit. Shoving the whole thing in his mouth probably wasn't the smartest thing, since what came out of his mouth was completely inaudible. Axel probably thought he was an idiot now.

As expected, the redhead gave him a weird look. "I'm sorry, I don't speak Swahili. Once again in English please?"

Roxas swallowed and translated; face turning red, "I said 'hello'."

He opened the door the rest of the way and saw Axel look him over. His heart skipped a beat. Whoa! Axel just checked him out! ...At least, that's what Roxas hoped Axel did.

"Well. Hello to you, too. You look good," Axel said casually, but his eyes traveled up and down Roxas' body again. "Ready to go?"

Roxas blushed like a little girl and muttered, "Yeah…" Why was Axel able to make him blush so much? At this rate, Axel would probably think he just naturally had a red face.

They made their way into the car and Roxas noticed it was already running. The music playing was surprisingly not Oblivion, and he heard:

"_When you walk away, you don't hear me say, pleeeeeeeaaase, oh baby!"_

He looked over at Axel and raised an eyebrow. "…the hell Axel?"

Axel grinned sheepishly and said, "What? Everyone knows this song." And to Roxas' horror, Axel began to sing along as he pulled out of the driveway, "'You're aaallllll I neeeed, ohh! You smiled me and said'…something something… 'But does that mean I have to meeeeeet your father? When you get older you'll unnnnnnderstand'- Come on, Roxas, I know you know the words too!"

Roxas laughed. "It sounds to me like you don't even know the words."

"Like that matters," Axel snorted. "Come on, Roxas, sing with me! Have some fun! Besides, this is Naminé's ring tone, so you'll have to get used to hearing it if you wanna date her," he said, turning to Roxas with a wink. Then he began to sing horrendously again, "'Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feeeeeeel tonight!'"

Roxas laughed and joined in, "'It's haaaaard to let it go! The'…something something 'that keeps us all busy are confusing me, that's when you came to me and said, wish I could prove I love you, but does that mean I have to walk on water?'"

After the song ended Axel skipped past it on his CD player, "Alright, that's enough of that crap," and Oblivion began to play, like normal. He then turned towards Roxas again, "You know, you were way off key."

Roxas' grin faded and he crossed his arms, "Well, so were you," he said indignantly, turning his nose up at Axel.

"I'm sure I was. But it was good to see you relax and let loose. That's what you gotta do when you dance, too," Axel told him, eyes focused on the road.

Blinking, Roxas thought about this for a second. Huh. He did feel a little more relaxed now. And he never sang in front of other people either, considering he sounded like a dying animal when he did. He was surprised he was able to do something like that in front of another person, especially one who he liked.

After Roxas was silent for a few moments, Axel asked him, "You're not still nervous, are you?"

Roxas bit his lip. "Yeah, a little bit," he admitted.

Axel sighed. "There's really nothing to worry about. You're a cool kid, you're smart, attractive, what more could Naminé want? I'm sure she'll be happy to have you as her date."

Taken aback that Axel had said those things about him, Roxas stared at the redhead. His heart did a little flip flop. Then a few somersaults. Perhaps a couple of other gymnastics moves. Did Axel really think those things about him?

"Besides, I'll be there the whole time, if you ever need me," Axel continued. "Just remember, 'What would Axel do?' W-W-A-D. Got it memorized?"

Roxas burst out laughing, "Now you're stealing Jesus' catchphrase?"

"Genius isn't it?" Axel said cockily. "It's not like its trademarked or anything. I should make tee-shirts. Hopefully Jesus won't beam down and smite me for it."

Roxas continued to laugh and shook his head. He was starting to feel a lot more comfortable around Axel now. It was…nice. He really felt like he had a friend. Now, if only he could stop picturing doing more than just friendly acts to Axel, he would be all set.

Axel mentioning that he would be there the whole time reminded Roxas of something. "Axel, are you meeting anyone there?" He'd been wondering this ever since Axel said he was going to go to the dance, too. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and he wanted to know now. He wasn't sure how he'd react to seeing Axel dancing with someone else…if he saw some girl all over Axel who knows what he'd do. Possibilities included: jumping on them and ripping them off of Axel, pulling their hair out, slamming them to the ground and grabbing the nearest fire extinguisher and spraying the life out of them. Screw that rule that guys can't hit girls. The rule could easily be broken when wanting to protect their sexy friend, who they also wanted all for themselves.

To Roxas' relief, Axel replied, "Nope." But then he said, "I don't like to be tied down." Roxas cursed inwardly upon hearing this. Dammit. There go all of his bondage fantasies about Axel out the window…

"For me, having to stick to just one person is boring," the redhead continued, and Roxas realized that he previously wasn't talking about kinky sex. Axel grinned and said, "So I get to dance with whoever I want to whenever I want to."

Roxas felt his good mood explode into a million tiny bits. Shit. Axel was going to be dancing with a bunch of different girls? Now he wished that Axel _was_ just meeting a specific person there. How many girls would Roxas have to resist fire-extinguishing?

They arrived at the school, Axel pulled into a parking spot and the two classmates got out of the car. Axel walked around and wrapped an arm around Roxas, pulling him in close against his side and giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Roxas stumbled and looked up at the older boy.

"Here we go," the redhead said, looking down at Roxas and keeping his arm around him as they walked into the building. "Naminé's waiting for you." Roxas gave him a nervous smile, and his heart started beating rapidly due to being so close to Axel's body and also because of the anticipation of seeing Naminé. They walked into the gym where the school dances were always held. The music was already pulsing and some people were already dancing, while others were at the refreshments table. Roxas spotted Naminé from across the room at the snack bar, amongst a crowd of friends. He felt his palms instantly begin to start sweating. She looked amazing. She was wearing a sparkly black and gray shirt that could be seen by everyone because it was reflecting all the disco lights in the room, along with come kind of black mini skirt thing. Roxas didn't really know his fashion too well, so he wouldn't really know.

"Well, there she is. Go sweep her off her feet," Axel encouraged, shoving the blond forward. He turned away to head towards some really slutty looking girls who were already grinding each other to the music, but Roxas reached forward and grabbed his arm. Axel turned towards him again and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Come with me," Roxas pleaded, half because he wanted someone to be there with him when he approached Naminé and half because he didn't want to see Axel with the group of sluts. "Please."

Axel gave him a kind smile. "Okay."

They walked over to where Naminé was, together, and she smiled when she saw them.

"Hey, Roxas, Axel!" she greeted, sweetly.

"H-hi..." Roxas said shyly, in unison with Axel saying, "Hey there."

Roxas studied the people Naminé was hanging out with, not really knowing what to think. She had her usual gang of girls hanging around her, but there were also two guys that Roxas had never seen before. One had long, silver hair, which looked really girly. He was wearing an all-black outfit, with some emo-looking accessories. The other boy had a peppy expression on his face, had on a white wife-beater, jeans that were way too big for him and sagged all the way down to his butt and exposed his boxers, which had little keys all over them. Roxas wondered if that was some type of sexual innuendo or something. He was also wearing a visor sideways on his spiky brunet head. Axel and Roxas both exchanged glances.

"Who are you guys?" Roxas asked, and immediately regretted it, realizing how rude it sounded. But he couldn't help it. Who were these kooks who thought they could hang out around Naminé?

"I'm Riku…" the emo looking one replied blandly.

"Yo! I'm Sora, son!" the ghetto-looking one practically screamed and Roxas jumped back at the other kid's outburst. Sora then did some kind of weird hand motion and crossed his arms in front of himself in a ghetto pose. "Wazzup?" he asked, inclining his head in the air at Roxas.

"Um…" Roxas mumbled, looking at the Sora kid with an expression that suggested he thought the kid belonged in an insane asylum. "Not much…"

A song began to play that was apparently popular since all the girls began jumping up and down and singing along. They seriously needed to learn to stop doing that. The boobs bouncing up and down were so distracting.

"Yo, this song is totally off da hook!" Sora exclaimed, and proceeded to drop down to the floor and break dance. Roxas stared. Wow. Why couldn't he do something like that?

"Go Sora! Go Sora!" Naminé began chanting, and her friends joined in. Roxas glanced over at Axel again, and saw that his friend was not looking impressed.

Sora finished doing some kind of awesome spin and paused, sitting on the ground. "Yo, Riku, why don't you dance?" he asked.

"I don't dance," Riku replied. "The…darkness won't allow me. It's too strong…darkness." Roxas noticed the silver haired guy twitch.

Sora made a face and whined, "Aw, come on, son! You've got to stop all that darkness crap. It's all in your head."

"Yes…" Riku said, eyes widening. "In my head…darkness. I cannot escape it…darkness."

Naminé giggled, and Roxas happily stopped staring at the two freakish kids he just met to look at her. Unfortunately, her shirt was at a certain angle and reflected the gym lights right into his eyes, blinding him.

"Ahh…my eyes…" Roxas groaned, covering his face with his hands.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Naminé apologized frantically, stepping towards him and touching his arm. "Are you alright?"

Roxas removed his hands and looked down at her hand upon his arm. "I-I'm fine," he stammered.

Naminé pouted. "I shouldn't have worn this shirt…"

"Oh, no, no!" Roxas protested, trying his hardest to not picture Naminé without a shirt, bravely placing a hand on her opposite arm. "You look great!"

Naminé smiled widely at him. "Thank you!"

At the moment, the pulsing dance song faded away, and a slow, cheesy one, began. Roxas and Naminé kind of stared at one another for a couple moments before Naminé hesitantly asked him, "Would…you like to dance?"

A slow smile crossed Roxas' lips and he said, "Yes!"

The boy tried to remember what Axel had taught him and carefully placed a hand on her waist and held her hand with his opposite. They began to dance and Roxas pictured himself dancing with Axel, imitating how they had danced a few days ago. To Roxas' delight, he was able to dance just as well, swaying to the music with Naminé.

"You're hands are really sweaty…" Naminé stated the obvious. Like Roxas didn't already know that.

"Um…I'm sorry?" Roxas wasn't sure if she wanted him to apologize for this or not. Axel had said that she shouldn't care about it…

"…That's okay," Namine said after a moment's hesitation. "It's kind of gross…but you're a good dancer."

Well, she had insulted him and complimented him in one breath. Roxas wasn't sure whether he should be happy or upset, so he just continued to focus on the dancing. Towards the middle of the song, Naminé pressed up closer to him and laid her head against his chest. Roxas was startled at first, but then he was filled with glee. Wow! Maybe she did like him, too!

After another minute, Roxas looked up, wondering where Axel had gone. He saw that Axel was dancing with one of Naminé's friends. The girl looked totally smitten and in awe that she was dancing with Axel and Roxas felt a stab of jealousy. Which totally wasn't fair…Axel was allowed to dance with other people. And Roxas was dancing with Naminé. Why should he be jealous?

Axel took notice of Roxas looking at him and he smiled at him. Roxas looked down at Naminé who was still lying against his chest, and he took his hand of her waist to give Axel a thumb's up. Axel's grin widened and he winked at Roxas. The two went back to dancing with their partners until the song ended.

Naminé pulled away and smiled, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "You're a really good dancer, Roxas. Most guys are so clumsy," she complimented.

Roxas was about to thank her, when all of a sudden a loud scream filled the whole gym, causing everyone to turn and stare.

"AXEEEEEEEEELLL!!"

All eyes turned to the redhead, who was standing, frozen, looking dumbstruck. Suddenly, something that resembled a female stormed across the gym, right up to Axel. Roxas noticed that she looked somewhat like a cockroach; her hair was like two antennae. He wondered why anyone would even want to style their hair like that. She looked like a bug. Bugs were not attractive. Bugs were creepy and gross. Why would she want to look like one? His thought process, however was interrupted when he saw her grab Axel and growled into his face, "How _dare_ you dance with another girl?!"

Roxas felt his heart sink. What? Was this chick Axel's girlfriend or something? For some reason, Roxas doubted it. Axel could do much better. For example…he could go out with Roxas.

Scowling at her, Axel pushed her hand off of himself. "Don't make a scene, Larxene…" he warned quietly, glancing around at the faces who were staring at them.

"But I'm pregnant with your child!" she screamed, grabbing him by the collar again. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Roxas' eyes widened. Pregnant? Did she mean…pregnant? As in, the act of semen traveling through the uterus and fertilizing the egg? (He had just learned that in biology the other day.) The act that came from getting down and dirty? Doing the mattress jig? Knocking boots? Fornication? _Inserting the penis into the vagina?! _Oh, dear Lord! This could not be happening.

"We never even had sex, you psycho bitch!" Axel yelled back at her, trying to push her off again. Roxas felt relieved at hearing that, and the redhead was able to escape her grasp and run away from her.

"I'm gonna castrate you!" she threatened and chased Axel out of the gym.

Roxas and Naminé stared after them until they disappeared from view; then Naminé grabbed Roxas and spun him around towards herself.

"Let's dance again!" she said excitedly because another slow song was playing.

Roxas glanced nervously from her to the gym door. He wanted to dance with her again…but then he wanted to see if Axel was okay.

"I'm sorry, Naminé, I want to, but I want to see if-"

"Axel will be fine. He's a big boy," Naminé interrupted, and Roxas hated the fact that she called Axel a 'big boy'. "He can take care of himself. I came to this dance to _dance. _And you wanted to go with me didn't you? So let's _dance,"_ she whined, pulling at his arm.

"Yo, Naminé, if Roxas wants to see if his homie is okay, you should let him." Sora said, walking up to them and lacing his fingers behind his head. "That ho was scary!"

"Yeah. Darkness." Riku agreed. What the hell was up with this guy and 'darkness'? It's like he just had to say it whenever he spoke.

But Naminé just ignored them and looked into his eyes sweetly. Her eyes were like big, shiny, hypnotizing wet things. They were beautiful.

"You smell good," she commented.

_Yes! She likes the smell of axes!_ Roxas thought happily, and gave in and danced with her, completely forgetting about Axel.

As soon as the song ended, Roxas snapped back to reality and pulled away from her. Axel! His balls could have been removed by now! Oh no! "Look, I'll be right back, okay Naminé?" he told her, and quickly ran away before she could protest.

Roxas stepped out into the hallway and glanced around. He didn't see them anywhere. He walked down towards the cafeteria, then suddenly, he felt a hand grab his arm and he was pulled into a janitor's closet.

"Ah, what the- hmf!" Roxas' mouth was covered by a hand as the door was closed, leaving him in darkness.

"Shhh!" The other person hushed him, and once Roxas' eyes adjusted the dark, he saw that it was Axel.

"Axel, what the hell are you doing?" he hissed, once the other student removed his hand.

"I'm hiding, isn't it obvious? Look, you've got to help me, Roxas," Axel whispered desperately, "She's crazy. She won't leave me alone!"

Axel looked like he was actually…scared. "Okay, wait a minute. Who is she?" Roxas asked, trying to use a calm tone. In reality, he was extremely nervous. Why? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that he was alone in a dark closet with Axel, inches away from his face.

Luckily, Axel prevented Roxas from picturing all the dirty things they could be doing in this small, dirty, space by saying, "She's this fucking psycho who wants in my pants." Now Roxas' eyes widened into big blue orbs. "Don't worry; she's never actually been able to," Axel reassured him once he saw Roxas' expression.

"So…what do we do?" Roxas asked.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Axel laughed as quietly as he could. "You are one of the top students in your grade aren't you? I'm sure you can think of something."

"Axel, I-" Roxas said a little too loudly, they heard footsteps outside of the door and Axel tried to silence him again with his hand, but it was too late. To their horror, the closet door suddenly flew open, exposing them to the light in the hallway. They looked up in terror to see Larxene standing before them, an expression of blood lust on her face.

"There you are!" she cried triumphantly. Then she actually noticed Roxas, pressed up against the wall of the closet with Axel's hand over his mouth.

"What the hell is going on here?" she asked quietly, but her tone was so cold it gave Roxas chills.

Axel and Roxas looked at each other, eyes wide, and then the redhead leaned back, removing his hand from Roxas' mouth.

Axel's expression quickly changed from one of immense fear to…something like…sexy calmness. If that made sense. "Oh, you seemed to have caught us, Larxene," he said smoothly, but Roxas could see he was still a little tense.

"…What?" Larxene hissed.

"Me and Roxas here were just about to get kinky in the closet," Axel replied, and Roxas gaped at him. If it were physically possible, his mouth would have dropped to the floor. Axel wrapped an arm around the blond's waist and nuzzled his cheek against Roxas' hair as he said, "Mmm…isn't that right, Roxy?"

Roxas could only stand stiffly and try not to squeal. What the hell? Was Axel…?

Axel stopped nuzzling him, drew back and looked into Roxas' eyes. The blond stared back, his heart pounding, thinking Axel was going to kiss him. Roxas was about to close his eyes and lean in, but then the older boy winked and reality gave Roxas a good, hard smack across the face. Oh. Axel was just pretending so Larxene would leave him alone…

Roxas swallowed nervously, and glanced at Larxene, who looked like she was going to explode at any moment. He figured he better go along with this, since Axel's body parts were on the line. And Roxas wanted everything on Axel to stay intact just in case he ever got the chance to touch those body parts. He raised his arms up, trembling slightly and wrapped them around the redhead's neck. "Yes, that's right, Axel," he said as convincingly as possible.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," Axel said, grinning. "But you see, I can't be with you. Cuz I'm gay."

Larxene lunged towards them, filled with fury. Roxas yelped and pulled himself in closer to Axel on instinct, squeezing his eyes shut and burying his head into Axel's chest, anticipating pain. None came though, and he cracked an eye open to see that some guy with pink hair had caught Larxene's arm and was holding her back. What the hell? Where did he come from?

"Let go of me, Marluxia!" Larxene screamed, trying to shake him off.

Marluxia just grabbed her other arm and pulled both of them behind her back. "It's time for your medication now, Larxene."

"Nooo!" she cried as she was dragged down the hallway. She called out threats to them, her voice getting harder and harder to hear as she got farther away. "I will kill you, Axel! I will force feed you barbed wire, shove it through your ass, and floss you to death! And your little boyfriend better watch out too! I'll break every bone in your body, skin you, and make you into a pair of pants!"

She continued to yell threats and once both figures and disappeared, Axel let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that was a close one." Roxas looked up at him and smiled. He was so happy to be able to help Axel out; the fact that Larxene had threatened his life didn't even bother him. Axel smiled back and said, "Um, you can let go of me now, Roxas. She's gone." Roxas realized that he still had his arms around Axel's neck and quickly let go.

"S-sorry," he stuttered awkwardly. Crap. Why hadn't he realized he had been clinging onto Axel in a death grip? It was probably totally obvious that he liked Axel now!

Axel just continued smiling and ruffled Roxas' hair. "It's okay. She is scary as hell after all."

Oh. Roxas relaxed a bit. Axel thought he had only clung to him because he was afraid…

"Well, let's go back to the gym then," the redhead stepped out of the closet and Roxas stared at his butt as he walked away. Hot damn. Roxas suddenly got an unexplainable urge to jump out of the closet and smack it. Luckily, Axel turned towards him again, causing Roxas to quickly advert his eyes back to Axel's face. He hoped Axel didn't realize that he was examining his tushie.

The other boy gave no hint of noticing though and said, "You don't want to keep your date waiting, Roxas."

Oh yeah! Naminé! Roxas had forgotten all about her. What with being in a dark closet with Axel, almost getting castrated by a cockroach and all. He quickly ran past Axel and into the gym, just in time to hear a very familiar song start to play. A wide grin crossed his face and he turned around to see Axel walking into the gym behind him.

"Axel! It's Oblivion!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Axel grinned as well and started to bob his head along to the beat. "Alright! Finally they're starting to play some good music."

They made their way over to where Naminé was, at the refreshments table and Roxas said, "Hey Naminé, sorry to have run off on you."

Naminé was about to say something when Sora interrupted, "Yo, dawg! So what happened? We heard that ho screamin' bloody murder down the hallway, isn't that right, Riku?"

Riku only nodded. Roxas thanked the heavens that he didn't open his mouth, because he might punch the guy if he mentioned 'darkness' one more time.

Suddenly Roxas felt Axel sling an arm over his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It was nothing me and Roxas couldn't handle."

Roxas looked at Axel's smiling face from the corner of his eye and he smiled too. It was like the guy's grin was contagious. He was feeling so happy. He didn't know if he had ever had this much excitement before. And it was the non-horny kind of excitement too, which was better because it made things less awkward.

Naminé smiled too…but something was off about it. Like, it seemed forced. "Um, Roxas want some punch?" She asked him, and grabbed him and pulled him away from Axel. She leaned over the table and scooped something out of a bowl that looked like liquid boogers into a cup. Ew…

"What it is?" Roxas asked her hesitantly, scrunching his nose up in disgust.

"It's cucumber melon! It's soooo good!" she said enthusiastically.

"Cucumbers? Bleh." Roxas stuck out his tongue, repulsed. Cucumbers…he shuddered. "I hate cucumbers."

"Really?" Naminé asked, her expression dropping. "Why?"

Roxas was about to respond when Axel walked up and said, "Hey, Roxas, it's the best part of the song."

"The sick guitar solo!" Roxas cried happily, and imitated playing the guitar along with the music, and the redhead laughed. Axel was right, this was the best part. It was so awesome how he and Axel shared the same favorite band. The two of them broke out into a crazy air guitar solo with each other, laughing. At the end of the song, they both slid on their knees on the ground and pretended to smash their invisible guitar on the floor. The music faded out and they were left in silence, everyone around them looking at them. A few people clapped awkwardly and a new song started.

"Ugh, you like that band?" Naminé sighed, setting her cup full of icky-ness down on the table and crossing her arms.

"Hell yeah!" Roxas and Axel both said in unison.

Naminé made a face. "They're just a bunch of noise to me."

Roxas stared at her in disbelief. How could she say such a thing? Roxas was an Oblivion fan for life! They were so much more than just noise to him.

"It's pretty cool how they sing about darkness a lot," Riku said, putting in his two cents. The only reason why Roxas didn't slap him was because he was supporting Oblivion.

"Nah, son." Sora said, shaking his head. "They ain't my style. I prefer rap. It's more fun to make a song about smacking some bitches around and getting high than about _darkness._" He stressed the last word on purpose, poking fun at Riku. Roxas wondered why those two were even friends.

The rest of the dance went really well (except for when Roxas got all flustered when "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake played when Axel returned from going to the bathroom. Roxas cursed the heavens. Why did _that _song have to play at _that _exact moment?). Naminé and Roxas danced to a few more slow songs. She continued to act sweet and cute. Riku continued to be emo. Sora continued to be ghetto. Axel continued to be sexy. Sora even mentioned that he would invite them over to his house next time his parents were out. Something about throwing a party that was "off da hook, fo shizzle". Whatever that meant.

* * *

After the last song, Roxas walked Naminé out to the parking lot to say goodbye.

"Did you have a good time?" he asked her bravely.

"Yeah!" she answered happily.

"So…" Roxas grinned and scratched the back of his head.

"So," she repeated, smiling up at him.

Roxas bit his lip and tried to think of what to say next. Suddenly, an image of Axel looking smug and spelling out "W-W-A-D. Got it memorized?" popped into his head. Oh yeah! What would Axel do? "Um…would you like to hang out again sometime?" Roxas asked in a confident Axel-like voice.

"Sure! What's your number?" she asked, pulling out her phone.

They both exchanged numbers, and she waved at him cutely before she got into her parent's car and they drove off.

A smile slowly made it way across his face. Roxas stood there stupidly and people walked by and gave him weird looks. After a few minutes, what happened finally hit him and he jumped up into the air, "WOO-HOO!" he cried, not really caring about the fact that people were avoiding walking near him like he had the bubonic plague or something.

"Someone sounds excited," a voice said behind him and he whipped around to see Axel. He ran up to his friend and shoved his phone into Axel's face, making the redhead flinch a little and blink.

"She gave me her number!" Roxas exclaimed gleefully.

Axel laughed and gently pushed Roxas' phone away from himself. "That's great, Roxas. I'm happy for you."

The two began walking out to Axel's car and Roxas was so happy he felt the urge to skip over to it, jump on top of it, rip his shirt off, spin it around above his head and dance. Luckily, he was able to control himself.

When they got into the car, Axel started the ignition and said, "I'm sorry about the whole thing that happened with Larxene, by the way."

Roxas looked over at him. Suddenly he remembered being caught in a closet with Axel and he flushed. "Um, how come?" he asked innocently, though he had a pretty good idea where Axel was going with this. He probably didn't want Roxas to think that he liked him. Roxas sighed. If only Axel knew that that was _exactly _what Roxas wanted to hear.

"Well, I know you weren't expecting me to…um…act like that." Axel suddenly seemed nervous. He was gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.

"That's okay!" Roxas said quickly. "I wanted to help."

Axel gave him a small smile and said, "Well, thanks for going along with it."

"You're welcome…" Roxas replied quietly. Secretly he wished that it would happen more often, so he could be all over Axel again. Except, maybe next time it would be better if he wasn't scared enough to almost pee his pants. Yeah. That'd be nice.

"I think she might finally leave me alone now. There's not much she can do if I'm gay, right?"

Roxas was silent for a moment and finally said, "…she could get a sex change…"

Axel looked over at Roxas and they both wore equal expressions of disgust on their face.

"Ew!" They cried in unison, and began to laugh.

Once a comfortable silence settled between them, Roxas devil popped up on Roxas' shoulder, making him jump._ "So, Axel thanked you for helping with Larxene, tell him to pull the car over so you can thank him properly for helping with Naminé!" _he demanded.

"_Can't you just leave me alone? I was in such a good mood!" _Roxas whined in his head. _"And what do you mean anyways?"_

"_Oh, you know." _The devil grinned mischievously. _"A little continuation about what you two were pretending to do in the closet. Only it'd be real this time. Just think. You. Him. Naked." _

"_You really are disgusting, you know that right?" _Roxas angel sighed when he appeared.

"_It's not disgusting to want to get it on. It's natural." _Roxas devil stuck out his tongue at his opposite.

"_Yes it is! Roxas is far too intelligent to succumb to such vile thoughts, isn't that right Roxas?"_

"_I'm sorry, what?" _Roxas asked him, snapping out of the daydream he was currently having about Axel and himself.

The angel sighed and rubbed his forehead in aggravation.

"_That's what I'm talking about!" _Roxas devil commented on Roxas' fantasy. _"Do it Roxas! I'm sure Axel will __totally__ appreciate it if you thank him in that way."_

"_Stop corrupting his innocent mind!" _Angel Roxas whined. _"Just thank him quickly when you get to your house, okay, Roxas?"_ he disappeared, clearly fed up with the devil.

"_Yeah, thank him with a quickie! Bwahahaha!" _Devil Roxas laughed evilly once the angel was gone, and vanished as well.

Axel pulled into his driveway and Roxas sighed in relief that his two guardians had left him alone.

After parking the car, Axel looked over at Roxas. "Well…goodnight."

Roxas stared at him and bit his lip. He really should thank Axel for everything he had done for him so far. But he didn't want to do it _either _of the ways that had been suggested to him. Just thanking Axel quickly would seem like he didn't mean it. And, um…Roxas highly doubted Axel would accept his sexual advances. So instead, Roxas threw himself at Axel and wrapped his arms around the older teen in a hug.

"Thank you for everything!" he said gratefully.

He felt Axel tense and heard him say, "U-um…you're welcome, Roxas…" After a moment, Axel brought his hands up to hug him back. Roxas was in heaven. He could have died happily right there. Who cares if hugging someone while you were both in car seats was uncomfortable? Axel was hugging him!

Eventually Roxas pulled away from him and smiled up into his friend's face. Axel was looking flustered and…was there a little bit of a blush on his face? Roxas figured it was probably just a shadow, since it was dark outside.

"'Night," he said, and got out of the car, leaning down and giving Axel a friendly wave goodbye before closing the door.

Axel kind of just stared at him, mouth slightly open and gave him a slow wave before pulling out of the driveway.

* * *

**End note: **Okay, so. My interpretation of Larxene is that she's a sadistic psycho bitch who wants Axel, but he does not want her. She was all touchy-feely with him in Chain of Memories but I really didn't get the impression that he liked her at all. Riku says darkness in the game pretty much every other sentence. So I just had to make fun of him for it. And Sora...I don't know why I made him all gangster really. It was funny to me. I can picture him being a wanna-be rap star. THIS IS JUST A PHASE FOR HIM, HE IS NORMAL-SORA ON THE INSIDE.


	5. The Surprise

**Disclaimer: **None of these lovely characters are mine :)

**Author's Note: **Had to cut out the whole beginning dream sequence because it was inappropriate and retarded anyway :) Sorry! Just know that Axel and Roxas have been having tutoring sessions for quite a bit now.

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter Five: The Surprise**

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* * *

  
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"Hey Roxas, you don't mind if I sit with you again today, do you?" Axel asked him when he approached the boy's table at lunch time.

Roxas quickly finished gulping down his milk and replied, "Of course not!" And he could think of a ton of other things he wouldn't mind doing with Axel; like, throwing him down on the lunch table, tearing each others clothes off – that sort of thing.

Grinning, Axel set his lunch down next to Roxas' and took a seat. Quite honestly, Roxas was flattered that Axel wanted to sit with him again. "Don't your friends mind that you come and sit with me?" the blond asked cautiously.

Axel just glanced at him sideways before taking a bite of what the school's lunch ladies claimed was pizza. "Nah," he said, mouth full. Axel's parents must not have taught him proper eating etiquette…"Dey dun gif a shit." The redhead waved an apathetic hand as he spoke.

Roxas gave him a small smile and continued eating. Axel was willing to ditch his friends to hang out with him!

"Besides," Axel said, resting his arm on the table and leaning forward. "I wanted to talk to talk to you."

"Huh? Why?" Roxas asked curiously.

With a smirk, Axel replied, "I have a surprise for you."

Roxas' eyes brightened. "W-what?" Axel had a surprise?

"Hey, Roxas, Axel, come sit with us!" a sweet voice suddenly called them. Roxas looked away from Axel to see Naminé waving at them from one of the various lunch booths against the opposite wall. His heart began to pound frantically. She wanted to eat lunch with him! _Both_ Naminé and Axel wanted to eat lunch with him! Roxas did a cheerleader-type jump internally. Complete with pom-poms and everything.

Roxas waved back and looked over at Axel, who suddenly looked annoyed.

"Well, let's go over there then, Roxas," the redhead encouraged, though he didn't sound very enthusiastic.

Roxas wanted to go see Naminé, but he wanted to find out what the surprise Axel had for him was first.

Devil Roxas decided this was a _great _time to show up and provide his insight. "_It's gonna totally be a _sexy_ surprise!"_

"Wait, what were you going to surprise me with?" the blond inquired quickly before Axel could get up, disregarding his evil other.

But Axel _did _get up, and lifted up his tray of food long with him. "Look, I'll tell you later, okay? At our study session this afternoon. Now let's go. There's no reason to be nervous."

If Axel wasn't so hot Roxas would have thrown his lunch tray at him. Why did Axel always say that? There was _always _reason to be nervous! No one understood his pain! Having a crush on a really hot older guy who wanted to help you go out with a really pretty girl your age and not being able to decide between them and having two parts of your conscience who never agreed was a big fat _bitch. _Roxas took a deep breath. Wow. It was exhausting just thinking about it.

"_You know what else is exhausting? Sex-"_ but before the devil could finish his perverted sentence, Roxas reached over and flicked him off of his shoulder while no one was looking.

Then Roxas just got up, gave Axel the most defiant look he could muster, turning his nose up at him and proceeded to walk to Naminé's booth. _I'll show _you_ for not giving me my sex and for not understanding my angst. _Out of the corner of his eye he saw Axel smirk at his actions as he followed closely behind Roxas.

"Hi!" Naminé's friends all greeted in unison once the two boys reached the booth. It was really creepy, Roxas noticed.

"Roxas, sit next to me," Naminé smiled up at him kindly and patted an empty spot on the booth next to her. The boy's heart was beating so wildly that he felt like he was going to have a massive coronary heart attack.

He cautiously sat his lunch down and scooted in next to Naminé, glancing into her blue eyes quickly. There was enough room left for Axel, and the redhead casually sat himself down right next Roxas. The blond tensed a little when Axel's leg brushed against his own. The space in the booth was very limited, so he was somewhat squished between Axel and Naminé.

By this time the devil had been able to fly back to Roxas' shoulder and he cheered, _"Oh yeeeeeeesssss. Right in-between them." _His mouth hung open, tongue hanging out, and he looked just about ready to swoon.

Angel Roxas appeared next to devil Roxas and slapped him across the face. _"You," _he snarled. _"Get a hold of yourself."_

Roxas was thankfully distracted when one of Naminé's friends interrupted from the other side of the table in-between them. "So, Roxas I hear you're a really good dancer!"

"Um…" He glimpsed at Naminé and she giggled.

"I told them," she admitted and Roxas couldn't help but smile in delight. She really thought so?

"Well…thanks," Roxas said, flattered. He was about to admit that he couldn't have done it without Axel, but then everyone would know that they had danced together. Axel probably didn't want that. Roxas took a bite of what was supposed to be Mac-n-cheese and ignored his two guardians who were still fighting.

Axel suddenly cleared his throat, "So why'd you invite us over here?" He asked bluntly, chewing on some food and looking uninterested.

"_He looks bored, Roxas, quick, reach into his pants and excite him!" _Roxas' devil ordered.

"_Speaking of pants, you really should look into getting a pair." _Angel Roxas commented dryly once again on the devil's lack of clothing, crossing his arms.

"_Oh come on, you know you'd love to see what this body looks like __without__ the leather panties." _The devil responded cockily. _"But how about you? Do you wear anything under that skirt of yours?"_

"We just wanted to talk to you guys." Naminé responded to Axel's question innocently. "If you don't want to eat lunch with us, that's okay…"

Roxas stiffened and both of his others disappeared, probably to go argue somewhere else…wherever they went when they weren't on Roxas' shoulders.

"N-no!" He said a little too forcefully, making the blonde girl next to him draw back a little. "I mean," Roxas quickly added, more calmly. "_I _want to eat you."

Everyone at the table stopped what they were doing and stared at Roxas. Axel had raised a spoonful of jello to his mouth, but he sat there, frozen, so it slid off and fell back down onto his plate with a plop. It was the only sound that was made at the table.

Roxas cocked an eyebrow at them. "What?" He asked, confused. Had he said something wrong?

All eyes still remained on him, mouths agape. Roxas began to feel extremely uncomfortable. He'd obviously done something wrong…

"U-um…" Axel laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "I think what Roxas means is he wants to eat _with _you, Naminé."

All the girls burst into fits of giggles and Roxas felt himself grow red. He quickly racked through his brain, trying to remember what he did. …_"I want to eat you." _He had left out 'with'…

_OH GOD._

"Oh, he's funny, Naminé," a brown haired girl commented between laughs, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Yeah, and cute, I approve," another pitched in.

Huh? _Approved? _Did she _approve _the fact that Roxas 'wanted to eat' Naminé…? …Not that he did…or anything...

…Girls were so strange.

"Yeah, you should _totally _ask him," a brunette girl with a bob hairstyle encouraged.

_Ask me what?_

"_Guys…_" Naminé stressed the word uneasily, but she was still smiling.

Roxas wondered what this strange girl talk meant. He looked up at Axel for support, but the redhead didn't notice. He just continued eating his food, looking slightly irritated with the whole situation.

"Just do it already!" A girl sighed in exasperation at Naminé.

Naminé fiddled cutely with her food for a moment before looking at Roxas and saying, "Um, well, you know how Hollow Bastion's Fun World is opening up next week?"

"Uh huh…" Roxas nodded. Hollow Bastion's Fun World was in the next town, and it was perhaps the most popular theme park around.

"Well…would you like to go to it with me?" Naminé asked.

Roxas' eyes widened. "Like…a date?" Yay!

More giggles came from around the table and Naminé said, "Yeah, like a date!"

Roxas' mouth dropped open and he made a couple of incoherent sounds before he was able to say, "I would love to…"

Naminé grinned the most beautiful grin Roxas had ever seen. "Great! Oh, my friends are coming too, you don't mind, right?"

Wow. Yeah, Roxas minded. These girls were annoying. But it wasn't exactly like he could say that in _front_ of them. Why did Naminé even bother asking?

"I don't mind." Roxas lied; then proceeded to finish up with the rest of his Mac-and-cheese. It was crusty…gross. He poked at some of it, wondering if it was mold or not.

Naminé seemed happy with his response and went back to eating as well.

Roxas decided he actually wasn't hungry anymore. This lunch was just too nasty. "So how are we going to get there?" he asked Naminé curiously, trying to remain calm, cool, and collected.

Naminé seemed startled for a second and then looked away, confused. Apparently she hadn't thought of this. After a moment she exclaimed, "Oh! I know! Axel could take us!"

Everyone turned to look at Axel, who didn't look like he had been paying attention and looked surprised at the sudden interest everyone was taking in him. "Hm? Take you where?"

"To Hollow Bastion's Fun World!" all the girls cried excitedly, making the two boys jump. Really, how were girls able to do that? Did they all have the same thought process or something? Did they share brain waves?

Axel sat back and crossed his arms. "I don't like theme parks."

Roxas' grin faded. What? But – he had to come! Roxas suddenly pictured having to walk around with a bunch of giggling girls like he was a babysitter. No, he needed another person with testosterone there with him. Plus, maybe if they went on the water rides, Roxas would get to see Axel in a swim suit…hopefully a Speedo; a nice, tight fitting Speedo that didn't leave much to the imagination.

"But…you have to come!" Naminé said frantically, leaning over the table to look past Roxas at the redhead. "Otherwise, how are we going to get there?"

Axel raised an eyebrow. "You only want me to come so you can have a ride?"

"No! _I_ want you to come because you're _hot_!" a brunette girl said quickly, attempting to convince him. There was an awkward silence. Roxas thought he recognized her as the girl that kept wanting to slow dance with Axel at the Spring Fling. After a moment the girl realized what she had said, her face turned beet red and she stared down at her lap.

Axel looked a little happier with the situation now as a smug little grin crossed his face. Roxas shot daggers at the girl with his eyes. It was fun mentally picturing her being impaled.

"Well…maybe. But only if Roxas wants me to come along," Axel offered, giving Roxas an affectionate look that the boy almost missed because he was imagining the girl being mutilated.

"Of course I want you to come along," Roxas told him like he should already know this._ I just plain want you in general!_

"Alright," the redhead said, and all the girls squealed with joy. "But I can only fit three other people in my car." The teens froze, their smiles fading.

"Well, you could go with her," Naminé responded simply, pointing at the girl who had called Axel 'hot'. She looked up from her lap and at Axel shyly. "Yeah…it would be like…a double date?"

_Oh hell no it wouldn't, bitch. Touch Axel and you'll be punched in the ovaries._

Axel tossed an apple up into the air and examined it before taking a bite. "Do youf haf a name?" he asked while chewing. Really, it was probably the only thing Axel had the habit of doing that turned Roxas off.

"Oh!" The girl's blush began to get deeper. "It's Olette."

"Olette, huh?" Axel swallowed. "Alright, seems like we're going to…'Fun World' together then."

Olette looked positively enthralled. Roxas looked positively murderous.

"I wish you guys could come," Naminé said sweetly to her friends. "If you can find other ways to get there then that would be great!"

Her friends all agreed and told her not to worry about it. The rest of lunch continued normally enough. The girls all gossiped and asked for Axel's and Roxas' opinions on things. Axel always responded blandly. Roxas always stuttered as he tried to figure out what they hell they were talking about it. After all, it was quite distracting being smushed in between your two crushes, knowing you were going on a date with one while the other would have a girl hanging all over him…

* * *

At the end of the day, Roxas found Axel leaning against the school building. The redhead didn't see him, but Roxas knew that Axel was waiting to go back to Roxas' house for tutoring.

As the blond made his way over to his crush, he saw Professor Xigbar notice Axel as well, as he was making his way out to his car.

"Axel, what the hell are you doing now, dumbass?" the teacher scolded, halting in his steps. "You realize that smoking is really bad for you, right?"

"Really?" Axel asked sardonically. He purposefully took another long drag on the cigarette. "I did _not_ know that."

Xigbar chuckled and shook his head. "As if, smartass. You know you're probably gonna kill yourself with those things."

Axel snorted. "Oh, please, tell me more." He rolled his eyes. "I'm just _dying_ to know." The redhead gave the teacher his trademark smirk and just continued smoking.

"Axel, you little shit, I oughta write you up for your backtalk-" the teacher began to say, and then he caught a glimpse of Roxas out of the corner of his eye, who had made his way up to them and was standing there awkwardly. "Oh, hey there, Roxas. You going to tutor this guy today? Man, I actually feel bad for making you do it. This guy is a major pain in the ass."

Axel's expression softened when he looked at Roxas, but he still casually flicked some ash off his cigarette and brought it to his lips again. Roxas coughed.

"Yeah. But I don't mind," the blond said honestly to his professor. "I like helping him." He glanced nervously at Axel, who was staring at him now, looking a little taken aback. Roxas smiled slightly at him, but their eye contact was broken when Xigbar spoke again.

"Why?" he asked incredulously. "I think I would poke my other eye out if I had to put up with him one on one." Axel glared at him. "But, whatever," the teacher shrugged. "Keep up the good work, Roxas." Xigbar gave the boy a wave, gave Axel a disapproving look, then turned and made his way into the parking lot.

"Teacher's pet…" Axel teased once the teacher was out of earshot.

"Hey!" Roxas exclaimed; then coughed a little again. "Am not!" He felt his eyes start to itch a little but tried to ignore it.

"Sure you're not," Axel grinned. "Well, let's go…"

The redhead turned and began to walk to the student parking lot and Roxas had to walk quickly to keep up with his long strides. He cleared his throat, and tried to ignore the fact that he was inhaling so much smoke.

"So-" Roxas wheezed a little. "So, what's the surprise you have for me?" He'd been thinking about it all day, and he wanted to know. _Now. _Roxas felt like he might explode from the anticipation. And that would not be pretty.

Axel laughed. "You're impatient, aren't you?"

"I waited all day!" Roxas defended.

"Well, you're going to have to wait a little longer," Axel said stubbornly, but he was grinning. They reached his red camaro and the older male blew out another puff of smoke before he began to open the driver's side door. Roxas had to admit, Axel looked sexy when he was smoking, as disgusting as that habit was. Well, okay, Axel looked sexy doing just about anything…except for when he was spraying food from his mouth.

"But I don't wanna-ACK!" Roxas accidentally inhaled too much of the cloud of smoke and began coughing, unable to speak. He gripped the side of the car and hacked and wheezed, doubled over.

As he was coughing uncontrollably, Roxas was able to crack one eye open, and he saw Axel's amused expression turn into one of deep concern. Axel dropped his cigarette and quickly ran around the car to where Roxas was on the other side. Roxas felt a hand delicately place itself on his back and he saw the redhead bend down to his level, face filled with worry.

"A-are you okay, Roxas?" Axel asked quickly. Roxas could only squint at him with one eye as he coughed into his hand. "Shit, Roxas, I'm so sorry!" He continued apologize, his hand still remaining where it was. His eyes darted around Roxas' face, unsure of what to do.

Roxas' coughing faded and he took a deep breath. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and looked up into Axel's green ones, which were gazing at him intently.

"I'm…fine…" he panted. "I'm just…allergic to smoke." His eyes were so watery Axel looked like just a big blurry thing. A big blurry _hot_ thing.

"What the hell, Roxas?" Axel suddenly drew back from him, questioning him in disbelief. "Why didn't you say anything?"

The blond took a deep breath again and leaned back against the car, wiping again at his watery eyes. Axel crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

"I…I didn't want to annoy you…" Roxas admitted. Honestly, he hadn't thought that he would have such a bad allergic reaction, so he hadn't bothered to tell Axel. He didn't want to be an inconvenience to him or anything.

"Didn't want to annoy me?" Axel asked incredulously. "Jeez, Roxas, you've got to tell me stuff like that. Why, did you think you were going to annoy me?"

Roxas stared down at his feet guiltily.

Axel let out a heavy sigh, reached forward and ruffled the blond's hair. "You should have said something. Man, I'm sorry…fucking nervous habit…I promise won't do it around you."

_Nervous habit? Why was Axel nervous? _Roxas coughed a little again, "N-no-"

"Yes, Roxas."

The two boys glared at each other stubbornly for a few moments. Then Axel reached over, opened the car door and gestured for Roxas to get inside.

Roxas scowled at him. "I don't need a freaking doorman." The blond shoved the older teen aside to get in, ducking his head quickly to hide his blush. Axel had said that he would stop doing something for his sake. He had _promised. _Promised something to Roxas, even though it was just a small thing. The blond wanted to drag him into the backseat and make sweet love to him right then and there. Nothing said appreciation better then getting naked and humping.

Axel shut the passenger door on Roxas and walked around to the other side and got in. When he started the car, Oblivion blasted through the speakers, as always. It reminded Roxas of the dance, which reminded him of Naminé, which reminded him of their date, which reminded him of lunch, which reminded him that Axel had been acting strange for most of it. A lot of reminders. Oblivion was just that cool.

"So what was up with you at lunch today?" Roxas inquired as Axel pulled the car out of the parking lot.

"What?" Axel looked confused as he glanced over a Roxas. "Nothing was up…"

"Yeah, you seemed annoyed." Roxas told him suspiciously. Well, it was true.

Axel sighed and dragged a hand through his hair, irritated. "It's just…Naminé seemed like she was testing you in front of her friends…I didn't like that…"

Roxas raised his eyebrows and stared at Axel. _Really?_ Roxas really hadn't seen it that way…but now that he thought about it, the way they were all questioning him…saying they 'approved'…

"Well…that's just what girls are like, right?" Roxas asked. Girls tended not to go out with a guy if their friends didn't like him; Roxas had taken note of this from eavesdropping on girls in his class. "Girls are self-conscious, they need support from their friends, I guess."

"Yeah…I guess…" Axel replied with a frown, seeming distant.

The blond studied him curiously. Huh. Axel always seemed so confident and sure about himself. And he was always so supportive of getting Roxas and Naminé together. But now he didn't like the way Naminé was treating Roxas…

Before Roxas could say anything more though, the redhead cleared his throat said coolly, "Besides, I _was_ going to surprise you with something, and she interrupted."

A small smile spread across Roxas' lips and Axel looked over at him and grinned cleverly. The mood suddenly lightened and Roxas didn't even care that Axel had changed the subject now. "Yeah, that surprise, what is it?" He asked eagerly. _You like me, you want me?_

"I'll tell you once we get to your house," Axel teased, looking pleased with himself, keeping his eyes on the road. Crap. Roxas was going to try that 'puppy dog eyes' look on Axel but the redhead was too distracted.

"Aw, Axel, I wanna know now!" Roxas whined.

"I can't now, I'm driving!" Axel laughed.

The blond shifted towards Axel in his seat excitedly and grabbed a hold of the redhead's arm. "Pleeeease, just tell me what it is," Roxas begged, and Axel looked down at the boy's hands, startled.

"I-I'll tell you when we get to your house!" Axel repeated, flustered, and tried to shrug Roxas' arms off of himself. The car swerved and they almost hit a fire hydrant. Both boys gasped and let out their breaths in relief once Axel regained control of the car again. "Erm, Roxas, you should let go of my arm, I need to concentrate."

Roxas reluctantly released his grip on Axel, sat back in his seat and pouted. He fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat for the rest of the ride. The anticipation was slowly killing him inside. It was like torture. Axel was evil for making him wait so long.

As soon as Axel parked the car in Roxas' driveway, Roxas turned to him and shouted, "Take me now!"

Axel looked at him with wide eyes, eyebrows raised as high as they could go and asked, "…What?"

Roxas paused, his face flushing when he realized what he had said. "Um, tell me now. I said 'tell me now'. What's the surprise?"

Axel laughed, "Not until we get inside. Jeez, you're impatient."

Throwing his car door open, the boy ran up to unlock his front door as quickly as he could. Axel just walked up to him at a normal speed, hands in his pockets and shaking his head in amusement. Roxas was so anxious that he couldn't seem to get the key to fit in the hole of the doorknob. The school boy let out an exasperated sigh and gritted his teeth, but his hand was shaking so much he couldn't do it. Roxas almost gasped in surprise when he saw Axel's hand suddenly wrap around his own. He looked up at Axel, but the redhead was concentrating on the doorknob, he led Roxas' hand to it, slid the key in and unlocked it with ease. When he released the boy's hand, he stepped inside the doorway and made his way over to the couch.

Roxas took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure and prepare himself for the upcoming surprise. He took his shoes off as always and shuffled over to the couch nervously, Axel watching him the whole time.

Roxas sat himself down and gazed at Axel expectantly. He watched as the redhead reached into his back pocket, eyes widening at what it could possibly be.

Axel pulled out his wallet, opened it, but paused and then looked up at Roxas before taking anything out. "Well, I got these a while ago, I was going to sell the other one but I want you to have it…" He trailed off awkwardly as he dug through his wallet, pulling out two slips of paper. Roxas squinted and tried to read what they said, but Axel's thumb was covering up the writing.

"What is it?" Roxas asked eagerly, leaning forward.

Axel grinned at him and slid his thumb over so that Roxas' favorite band's logo could be seen. "Two tickets to go see Oblivion next month," he replied somewhat quietly, watching Roxas' expression intently as it filled with joy.

"Holy…" Roxas breathed. He stared at Axel in disbelief. "How the hell were you able to get them?" Oblivion tickets were impossible to get a hold of!

"If I really want something, I have my ways of getting it," Axel replied with a shrug. "So, wanna go to the concert with me then?"

"Hell yeah!" the blond exclaimed; then lunged forward to try to grab his ticket.

But Axel drew his hand away quickly and held them out of Roxas' reach. "Hey, you're not getting it that easily," he teased.

"Come on Axel!" Roxas groaned, leaning over Axel's chest and stretching his arm out to try to reach them, but Axel's arm was still too long.

"You're going to have to try harder than that," the redhead laughed.

Roxas grabbed Axel's arm and tried to force it down to his own level, but it was to no avail.

"Stop being an ass!" Roxas yelled at him in aggravation, but the redhead wrenched himself away from him and scurried across the room.

"Come and get 'em!" Axel called in a sing-song voice, waving the tickets above his head mockingly.

Roxas scowled at him and ran at him, and before the other boy could react, Roxas had tackled him to the ground. The tickets flew out of Axel's hand and Roxas grabbed one in midair, holding it above his head triumphantly.

"Ha!" he cried in victory from on top of Axel. Axel looked up at him, face flushed with a wide smile on his face. It was then Roxas realized that he was straddling the redhead. They stared at each other for a moment, but then Roxas broke eye contact and looked down at his ticket, embarrassed. He noticed the date on it and his mouth fell open for what felt like the one-hundredth time that day.

"Hey, this concert is on my birthday!" Roxas said in disbelief.

"Really? The thirteenth?" Axel asked, folding his hands behind his head and using them as a pillow. "That's awesome. Well, that's my birthday present to you, then."

They smiled at each other and jumped when Axel's cell phone began to ring. The older student quickly reached into his pocket and pulled his red razor out, flipping it open and answering, "Hey, you've reached the Ax."

Roxas heard some kind of high pitched screaming come from the receiver and Axel quickly pulled the phone away from his ear and winced at the loud sound.

"Shit. It's Larxene," Axel mouthed to Roxas and the boy felt a little bit of fear creep into his being.

Larxene continued to shriek inaudible sounds and Axel bit his lip. He covered the mouthpiece with his hand and said to Roxas, "I'm going to tell her I'm with you. I still have to pretend we're…together, okay?"

"Erm, okay…" Roxas nodded down at him, wondering what exactly Axel meant by that.

Axel brought the phone cautiously back to his face, "H-hey Larxene!" He laughed nervously. "You caught me at kind of a bad time- ah, Roxas not while I'm on the phone!" Axel had raised his voice, and Roxas raised an eyebrow. What the hell? He didn't do anything.

Roxas heard Larxene speak again, but this time her voice had that icy bite to it.

"What am I doing? Well, that's kind of private, you see, me and Roxas were just-" He suddenly let out a very convincing fake gasp. "Ohhh, Roxas! Oh God, you're so _good_." Axel moaned, winking at Roxas.

The blond gaped.

Larxene began screaming again but Axel only continued. "Oh, oh, Roxas that's the spot! Right there! Keep going, ah!...I'm sorry Larxene," Axel paused and panted for dramatic effect. "We're going to have to continue this conversation a different-nnngh- time."

Axel flipped his phone shut and looked up at Roxas, seeming pleased with himself.

"Well, let's get to studying, shall we?" he asked casually, shifting slightly to hint to Roxas that he wanted to get up.

Roxas' eyes were so wide it was a wonder they didn't fall out of his head. The boy got off of Axel as quickly as he could; running down the hallway, calling back to Axel that he was just going to the bathroom.

Once he got into the washroom he quickly turned around and slammed the door shut, locking it. He fell back against the wall and slid down it with a sigh. The blond closed his eyes and ran a hand over his face, cursing as his devil materialized and fell into his usually perverse commentary.


	6. Fun World

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts characters star in this story, and I probably owe Nomura an apology for that.

**Author's Note: **Good god I hate this chapter.

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter Six: Fun World**

**

* * *

  
**

"_First, we'll go on the Mind Eraser, and then we can ride the teacups and then-"_

Roxas sighed and held his head in his hands for a moment before trying to start on the next math problem.

"_I hope we get a chance to eat some corndogs, I love corndogs!"_

Tapping his pencil on his paper, Roxas stared at all the numbers and symbols blankly, his mind not focused on them at all.

"_Axel is so nice to be taking us. He really is the sweetest guy ever. Are you two best friends?"_

"Hey Roxas."

Said boy jumped back and flailed his arms at the sudden appearance of a hand waving in front of his face. "W-what?" Roxas straightened and looked over at the seemingly curious redhead on his couch, hoping he had succeeded in regaining his composure.

Axel made a face and placed a hand on his hip, shaking his head. "I'm already done with the homework you little slacker. What's up with you?"

Roxas looked down at his hands, then looked over at the picture of his big breasted Aunt Ruth on the wall, then back at Axel who looked too hot for his own good, then decided that looking at the ceiling was the best choice. "Nothing's up. I guess I'm just finding the homework difficult."

"Psh, don't lie to me Roxas. You've had your worry face on all week." The redhead smiled and closed his textbook. "You're obviously distracted. Let me guess: worried about Naminé? About tomorrow?"

Dammit. Why did Axel always know _everything_? Naminé had been stressing him out big time, constantly talking about their future trip to 'Fun World' with Roxas; which caused him to be constantly thinking about it. He found it hard to concentrate on anything lately.

"Well…yeah…I guess so…" the blond admitted a little guiltily.

"Seeee? I know you too well." Axel grinned and waved a hand in the air smugly. "Man, I wondered if you were ever going to want to talk to me about it. You know I'm here for you Roxas, don't be so shy." His smile now turned into a disappointed frown as he leaned back against the couch and crossed his arms.

"Oh! I'm…I'm sorry…" Roxas hung his head, feeling his face grow hot. He had wanted to talk to Axel about it numerous times, he really did. But something always stopped him. When Axel talked about Naminé with him…it made Roxas sad. Sad because his hopes of ever getting with Axel would get crushed, since the redhead was so supportive and gave no hint of liking Roxas back.

"Nah, don't apologize." Axel now moved a little closer to him on the couch. "I already thought of the perfect plan though, so don't fret. I'll drag Olette off somewhere, claiming to want some alone time, so then you can charm Naminé with no distractions. It's flawless!"

Roxas blinked a few times, dumbstruck. _No…no that's not what I want!_ _No Olette! Bad! _The blond was really growing a hate for that girl; trying to move in on his man. So "No!" is what Roxas shouted, causing Axel to jump and get an amusingly surprised expression on his face.

"…No?"

"I mean…I want you to stay with me – with us! I…I need you there with me to help…you know I can't 'charm' her…" Roxas answered honestly, biting his lip and glancing at Axel a little hesitantly. Well, of course, he had _almost_ told the whole truth. Just left out the 'I have a major crush on you and I wouldn't be able to handle the fact that you were alone with someone else attracted to you' part.

A serious look now crossed Axel's face, "You don't need me, Roxas." He said, wagging a finger in the air. "I believe in you. You can do it." Axel smiled now; it was small but its geniality practically made Roxas melt.

"You're just saying that…" he muttered, lowering his eyes. Roxas really didn't have much confidence in himself at all. Around his crushes he couldn't seem to stop stuttering, and he could never get away without saying something stupid. At this point he was kind of thinking that he would be a virgin for the rest of his life. Devil Roxas was getting really bummed.

"I'm not…" Axel slid closer to him again, and then wrapped a comforting arm around Roxas' shoulder, which made the boy even more nervous. "You just need to be yourself. I like you just the way you are. If Naminé doesn't like you…then…she's crazy."

Roxas looked at the redhead in surprise at what he said, mouth dropping open. He quickly closed it again when he realized how close Axel's face was to his own, he didn't want to look dumb so close up. Then Roxas realized that the redhead's hand on his shoulder was placed there so delicately and – Axel was gazing at him with an expression that Roxas had never seen before. Maybe it was just Roxas' imagination, but it was affectionate and very soft. His heart began to go crazy, pounding against his ribcage as if wanting to escape. The distance between them seemed to be getting smaller, Axel staring at a very specific place on Roxas' face. But the blond couldn't really tell where he was looking, _my chin, my cheek, my nose, my…lips? _His eyes widened at this thought and he panicked.

"Do-do I have something on my face?" he asked a little too loudly and quickly.

Axel blinked, looked back up into Roxas' eyes; then leaned away quickly, as if he saw something he didn't like. "No." Axel now pulled his hand away and scratched the back of his head, looking away. "No, your…your face looks fine…sorry, I don't know what…" he trailed off, refusing to make eye contact again.

Roxas found that he couldn't speak anymore, but his evil conscious decided to show up and speak for him. _"You __idiot__. Axel almost just __kissed__ you. And you went and screwed it up."_

The boy's eyes grew even wider, if possible, at this realization, but then angel Roxas appeared, arms crossed and indignant. _"That's not what Axel was doing. He was just…just…well I don't know what he was doing but it wasn't that."_

Devil Roxas smirked. _"Finally, for once you can't come up with some kind of excuse against gayness." _

"_Th-they're not excuses! Axel's straight. So…that's n-not what he was doing, that's all!…And Roxas is straight too!" _The miniature blonde's halo had gone crooked and he quickly leveled it.

So Roxas felt a mixture of shame, like his devil, and confusion, from his angel. The feeling in the room had suddenly gotten really awkward, and Roxas studied Axel as the boy picked up his homework, seemingly read it, then setting it back down again, looking indecisive.

…_What was all that about…?_

Axel suddenly cleared his throat, making Roxas flinch a little bit, his thoughts interrupted.

Guess he would never know.

"Anyways, you really should start on the homework; I need to go soon…" the redhead said, wearing an unreadable expression.

"Oh…right…" Roxas replied, his disappointment in himself heavy in his voice. The boy began working on it again, while Axel pulled out something that looked like chemistry homework, waiting until Roxas had a question or wanted to compare answers. This is usually how they studied, helping each other. If anything, Axel was equally as smart as Roxas, he just had a lack of work ethic. But the uncomfortable air around them would not go away, Axel's shoulders were tense and Roxas' hands were still shaking, making his writing illegible.

"_Quick, Roxas, just because you screwed up, doesn't mean you can't fix it." _The devil encouraged, obviously not happy with the situation. _"Do something sexy! Like…take your shirt off. I'm tired of you just sitting there on your ass. If want him, you have to actually, you know, __do__ something!"_

Angel Roxas just shook his head disapprovingly. _"You know that'll only make things worse, Roxas. Just say something to make things normal again – And that won't make him think you want him! Because you don't."_

Roxas considered this for a moment before saying quietly, "Hey Axel…"

"Hmm?" Axel promptly raised his head from looking at his work, his elbows resting on his knees to allow him to lean over the coffee table.

Having Axel's eyes meet his again made Roxas forget what he was going to say for a second. "I just wanted to say…thanks for coming along with me tomorrow." _Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame._

"Hey, I already said it's no problem."

"Yeah, but you also said you don't like theme parks…" Roxas pointed out.

"Oh, I like theme parks just fine." Axel shrugged. "It's that _Olette_ girl that I don't like."

Roxas' heart seemed to flutter, and a wide grin crossed his face. "Really?!" he cried, and he hoped he didn't sound as excited as he felt, because Axel might find that suspicious.

Axel laughed, "Yeah. She kind of scares me. But I didn't want to be mean, so…"

Hearing this made Roxas so happy once again. So Axel didn't like Olette! Now there was one less thing for him to worry about it. Axel was so sweet for agreeing to go with someone he didn't even like…yet another reason for Roxas' crush on the guy to grow.

"But yeah. Tomorrow will turn out great, I bet." The redhead smiled along with Roxas. "I wish you would stop worrying, regardless of how cute you look when you do."

Roxas' face turned into one of astonishment yet again. "Whaaat?"

Axel looked confused for a moment but then he must have realized the implications of his statement because within a second he jumped back, waving his hands in front of himself. "C-cute to Naminé I mean! I mean, you know, I know girls, and I know they find…things like that cute, you know?"

"_Successsssssssssss!"_ Devil Roxas declared triumphantly, dancing around and using his pitchfork like it was a stripper pole.

Angel Roxas smacked his forehead with his hand.

Real Roxas thought for sure that Axel was blushing. Okay, so maybe Axel didn't realize it, but if he realized what girls found cute, maybe that kind of, sort of, somehow meant _he_ unconsciously found it cute too?

"Anyways, um, did you get to question fourteen yet?" Axel asked, grabbing his math paper and squinting at it, serious yet again. "It's really hard…"

Predictably, devil Roxas opened his mouth to make an innudeno at that, but luckily Roxas' reflexes seemed to beat his thoughts to the punch. He slapped his shoulder, eliciting a little "Ahh!" from his minion when he was smacked and fell off. Axel raised an eyebrow.

"There was a bug…" Roxas lied, and he spent the rest of their time together wondering what everything Axel had done had meant, and hoping the older boy would give him another clue.

* * *

"This is why I don't like amusement parks…" Axel groaned when another person bumped into him as the group of four walked through 'Fun World'. "They're way too crowded…"

"Aw, don't be such a downer, Axel," Naminé scolded, crossing her arms and giving the redhead a glare.

Roxas studied the unique group of people he was with for moment and smiled. Things were going pretty well so far, just like Axel had said they would. It was a beautiful day out, the sun shining down on them and the park was all clean and sparkly. Naminé seemed like she was having fun, and Roxas had yet to do anything foolish around her yet. Although Axel was complaining about the park and the car ride there (during which Olette would _not_ shut up), he still seemed like he was pretty happy. Every time he looked at Roxas his scowl would falter, which made Roxas feel like a giddy little school girl. Kind of like Olette; though he was _no _where near as bad as her, of course. As long as Roxas ignored her, it was okay. Not that the devil hadn't tried to convince him to kill her a few times, because he definitely did, especially when she had suggested that Axel and her should go on that supposedly romantic swan boat ride together. Luckily though, Axel had spluttered some kind of excuse that he got seasick within five seconds being out on water, and Olette had believed it.

"There it is!" Olette roared, suddenly halting in her steps and pointing ahead of herself.

The other three now stopped along with her, craning their heads up to gaze at the huge, red rollercoaster in front of them.

"Wow…'The Mind Eraser'…!" Naminé gasped, and Roxas gaped at the sheer size of the thing. It was one of the most infamous coasters throughout the country, and for good reason. With speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, and it was about 3,000 feet of pure steel. Definitely scary. But it was what attracted so many visitors to the park, and what the girls had been most anticipating.

"But I don't want my mind to be erased," Axel suddenly broke their awed silence with a small voice.

Olette started giggling. "Oh, don't worry; I'll take care of you!" She forcibly linked her arm through Axel's, and when she wasn't looking Roxas saw him roll his eyes.

"Oh would you look at that, the line is huge, the wait is probably two hours long or something, let's go do something else!" Axel exclaimed with a fake smile on his face, Roxas knew him well enough now to recognize his real smile.

"That's no problem. Luckily, my parents bought me an 'easy pass,'" Naminé announced proudly, pulling a ticket out of her purse.

"And what makes this 'easy pass,'" Axel used his fingers like quotation marks as he repeated the name, "so great?"

"It let's us cut in line," the blonde girl answered with an innocent smile.

"Oh…" Axel looked up at the 'Mind Eraser' again and swallowed thickly.

"Is something wrong Axel?" Roxas examined his friend's face, concerned. The other teen didn't look like he was having fun anymore, he actually looked pretty frightened.

"Um, no," Axel said, and twitched as the coaster flew by them on a railing only ten feet above them at top speed.

"Then what's keeping us from going on this thing?!" Olette began trying to drag Axel towards the entrance, but failed in making him budge.

Axel was obviously ill at ease, and Roxas shifted his feet, trying to think of a solution to make things all better; which was pretty hard to do considering Roxas' people skills needed work.

"It seems like you don't want to go on this…" Naminé commented, looking at Roxas for some support. The boy was torn. He knew that Axel didn't want to go on this thing, but Naminé did. _Fucking cucumbers on a stick!_ "I've never met a guy who was afraid of roller coasters before."

"It's not that I'm afraid, it's just that it's caused me to realize something about myself: I value my life," Axel stated and Roxas almost didn't catch what he said because of the screaming people flying by them.

"You'll be fine." Naminé waved her hand dismissively. "Since this ride has been constructed, only one person's fallen off so far and died, and a couple people have gotten broken bones, but…what're the chances that'll happen to you?"

Axel stared at her in disbelief. "Oh, that's _so_ reassuring."

"Well, you can wait here then I guess…" she said, grabbing the Roxas' sweaty hand, beginning to drag him along behind her. The blond looked back at Axel apologetically and probably a little nervously as Olette tagged along. He didn't want to leave Axel behind…they were supposed to stick together…

Roxas watched Axel, craning his neck and tripping over his feet as he went. The other boy looked positively confused, and to be honest, Roxas found it adorable. Axel kept glancing from the ride to Roxas, from Roxas to the ride…

"W-wait!" the redhead unexpectedly called out before they got too far, and he ran to catch up, eyes on Roxas the whole time. "I'll…I'll go," he said, surprising Roxas once he fell back into step with them.

"Oh, you're so brave!" Olette complimented as she tried to latch herself on Axel's arm again, but he moved it out of the way just in time, raising his hand up to his mouth with a cleverly staged yawn.

"You really don't have to Axel…" Roxas told him as Naminé presented her pass to a park official.

Olette was distracted by a butterfly floating by, so Axel leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "But you wanted me to stay with you, right? So here I am."

When Axel pulled away from him and gave him a reassuring thumbs-up along with a wink, Roxas' eyes almost got all teary from Axel's commitment to their friendship. _He's willing to risk his life for me!_ Roxas practically swooned from this sappy and probably exaggerated thought.

"Alright, we're in!" Naminé punched a fist up in the air and paused when she saw that Axel coming along with them. "Oh. You got over your fear, Axel?" she asked.

"I'm not scared," Axel contradicted again, placing his hands on his hips and looking down his nose at her defiantly. "It's just that…I sometimes get sick on rides, so I didn't want to spoil our trip. Yeah."

"Hmm, okay," Naminé said suspiciously, as if she was on to Axel. Roxas couldn't help but smile at this.

"No, I do. Seriously." Axel said, very…seriously.

"Alright, come on you big baby." Naminé turned on her heel, taking Roxas' hand again and pulling him up to wait at the boarding area. Before Roxas was yanked too far away he heard Axel mumble, "I'm not a baby…"

They only had to wait there for less than a minute, dealing with the glares from people who had been waiting in line for over an hour since they got to cut. Naminé looked so cute, bouncing on her heels, hands clasped behind her back in anticipation. This girl liked her thrill rides. Roxas liked that in a woman. Axel was silent and Roxas could see that his whole body was stiff but he still looked godly with the bright sun shining down on them. His hair was all shimmery. Roxas wanted to run his fingers through it, and pull it out of the elastic band that he had it tied back in. Once the gigantic metal contraption rattled its way up to where they were waiting, Roxas stepped forward to sit in one of the seats with Naminé, but a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Hey Roxas…I-I'm starting to chicken out…" Axel whispered, and his calm demeanor was starting to crumble. "Do you think it's o-okay if I sit with you on this…this thing?" The redhead glanced around nervously as people began stepping out of the coaster and leaving.

Roxas raised his eyebrows, trying to ignore Naminé's hand tugging on his own. "Axel, you don't have to go on this…you can leave…" As much as he didn't want to get separated from Axel, he most certainly didn't want to force him to do something he didn't want to do.

"Hey, Axel, did you want to ride with Roxas?" Naminé suddenly turned and blinked questioningly. "It's okay; I know you're scared, so go ahead…"

"I am _not_ scared!"

"Hey can you guys quit fighting over the little blond boy and just get in your seats already?" a bored looking employee droned from his position at the controls. All three schoolmates blushed.

"I'll sit with Axel!" Olette chimed in.

"Alright, Axel and I will share a seat," Roxas announced quickly, now sure of himself just to spite her, and ignored her pout. Naminé smiled understandably. They all climbed into the machine and strapped themselves in, the girls with each other and the guys with each other.

"I'm sorry; I know you wanted to sit with Naminé…" Axel said once they had their seatbelts on, voice shaking slightly.

"And I _know _you totally wanted to sit with Olette," Roxas joked, feeling somewhat excited from the fact that his 'date' was going well so far, that he was about to going flying at super fast speeds and that Olette had just been totally _denied. _

Axel looked taken aback for a moment, then laughed. "Yeah, thanks for that," he murmured quietly, so both girls, who were sitting in front of them, couldn't hear.

Roxas fiddled with his seatbelt, "…Come on, you don't have to do this…"

Axel still had time to get off the ride, and well, it was really obvious that he didn't want to be on it. The redhead appeared to be really pale and his expression was one of a doomed man.

"Well, I don't know Roxas, I am kind of afraid of heights but…" At that moment, the rollercoaster began to creep forward, being pulled up to the top of the first big drop.

Axel gulped. "I-I guess it's t-too late now…"

"It's okay, Axel," Roxas tried to sound reassuring. "This ride is only about a minute anywaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyysssss!" He screamed on the last word when the roller coaster reached the top of the hill and dropped down.

It all went by so fast. Speed is what made the coaster famous, after all. Roxas screamed at the top of his lungs as the ride went on. He couldn't really see what was going on though because Naminé was in front of him, and her hair kept whipping him in the face. It wasn't until after all the loops and twists were over and the roller coaster came to a slow halt that Roxas was able to look back over at his companion.

"Wow! Wasn't that great?" Roxas asked breathlessly, but his thrill from before faded away upon seeing Axel's face.

Axel looked incredibly pale and was staring straight ahead of himself, eyes wide as saucers. His elastic band had flown out of his hair, so his crimson spikes were sticking out everywhere from the wind. Their seatbelts were unlocked and Roxas moved to get up, but the redhead didn't follow. Olette and Naminé got out of their seats, and gave Roxas a questioning look when they saw Axel just…sitting there.

"Hey…um…Axel, it's over now…" the blond said quietly, trying to ignore all the stares that people were giving them.

Axel didn't respond.

"Axel," Roxas said a bit louder, getting nervous now, shaking the other boy's arm a little. Upon doing so he found that Axel was trembling. _Oh crap…_

Axel blinked; then finally focused his gaze on the blond next to him.

"Roxas…is that you?" he asked weakly, leaning forward and placing a hand on the boy's cheek, which made Roxas blush.

"Uh…what's wrong with him?" Olette and Naminé shared a glance. "Maybe he's in shock…"

"I…I don't feel so good…" Axel said, looking dizzy.

"Hey, other people are waiting to ride this, y'know!" some guy shouted from behind them.

Roxas nervously pulled on Axel's arm, helping him out of his seat. They began to head towards the exit, everyone they passed giving them concerned glances. Axel was all wobbly, and he was leaning almost all his weight on Roxas, which not only made it difficult for the poor little blond to walk, but also made him feel incredibly awkward. Axel's arm was around Roxas' shoulder and the blond had to wrap a supportive hand around his waist. Roxas was not very comfortable touching other people. Especially ones that he wanted to see naked.

"I'm…I'm gonna be sick…" Axel suddenly croaked, and everyone around who had heard backed away instinctively, except for Roxas of course. He could only look up at Axel in horror. _Don't puke on me!_

"There's a garbage can over there!" Naminé cried helpfully, pointing to it like their lives depended on it.

Axel let go of Roxas and went running towards it at top speed, letting out a very attractive "BLEEEEEEEAH!" when he got to it.

"Ewww…" Olette commented, scrunching up her nose.

Naminé scratched her temple with her forefinger, pretending to be very interested in the Ferris wheel up ahead. But she couldn't hide her disgust either.

Roxas could only look down at his shoes guiltily. _Poor Axel…this is all my fault…I shouldn't have been so persistent in having him stay with me…_

When Axel finished, he collapsed on a bench nearby. The three sophomores cautiously approached him, making sure to avoid the garbage can.

"Are-are you okay?" Roxas asked, voice laced with concern. _Oh please don't hate me for making you go on that thing…_

"Uuuugghh…I shouldn't have gone on that thing…." Axel groaned.

_Crap. He hates me._

"Are you going to be okay?" Naminé repeated after Roxas sweetly.

"Are you going to get sick again?" Olette asked.

"I'll…I'll be fine." Axel sighed and leaned back on the bench, closing his eyes and wiping cold sweat from his brow. "You guys can go on without me. Just meet me here when you're ready to leave…"

A chorus of "What?!"'s "No!"'s and "Why?!"'s met Axel.

"No, really, go on without me!" Axel said dramatically, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead like a damsel in distress.

"I'll stay here with you!" Olette exclaimed with a determined look on her face, plopping herself down next to Axel on the bench.

The redhead glanced at her with one eye from underneath his hand. "Gee…that's…nice of you…" and Roxas could tell that that was most certainly _not_ what Axel wanted.

"I…I can't just leave you here Axel…" Roxas finally managed to say, then crouched down next to him and whispered, "I need you…"

"Hey…what did I say yesterday? You don't need me. You've been doing fine so far, I… haven't helped at all, haven't you noticed?" Axel whispered back. "Now's your chance to be alone with Naminé without Olette and I spoiling the romance. Don't worry about me, doofus."

_But…just having you around me helps me…_

"Hey hey! Secrets don't make friends!" Olette scolded suddenly, before Roxas could respond.

The blond let out a yelp when a hand abruptly grabbed onto his shoulder from behind and tugged him away from Axel. "I think he's right. Let's just go off and have fun, Roxas," Naminé said excitedly. "Axel wants us to."

"Exactly," Axel gave him a reassuring smile but Roxas just pouted. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Don't you mean 'we'?" Olette crossed her arms and huffed.

Axel glared, though it was weak because he was still feeling ill. "Yeah. _We'll_ see you later."

Roxas was torn once again. "_Go with Naminé, Roxas!" _The boy's angel was telling him, while his devil was shouting desperately, _"Nooooo, shut up you pansy! Stay here with Axel. He's vulnerable. You can fondle him and he probably won't even realize!"_

But before Roxas could make a decision, Naminé grabbed his hand and said, "I hope you feel better Axel!" while proceeding to lead Roxas in the opposite direction. Olette waved at them, looking quite satisfied with the fact that she got to stay with Axel, while the redhead gave a parting salute before leaning back against the bench and closing his eyes to calm his reeling stomach.

"So what do you want to do first?" Naminé asked once they were out of sight, swinging her arm so their arms swayed together merrily.

Roxas was lost for words, because it seemed that all his consciousness was in his hand, which was holding hers. _Curse my sweaty hands…_He had dreamed of moments like this with her ever since the second grade when she drew with crayons all over the wall and gotten in trouble. He thought her art was really good back then, which was funny since it hadn't changed a bit and now…

"Roxas?"

"Huh? Oh, um, I-I don't know," Roxas replied lamely. "What do _you_ want to do?"

Naminé squinted around at the various things around the park, the many food vendors, other rides and games. "You know what I've always wanted?" She stopped and scuffed her flip flop on the ground, seeming a little bashful.

"Um…no, I don't know what you've always wanted," Roxas answered, wondering what she was getting at.

"I've always wanted a boy to win a prize for me…"

Naminé looked a little embarrassed and she gave a small smile, glancing over at the arcade where you could win different prizes depending on how many tickets you got from playing the games.

"O-oh really?" Roxas felt his heart flip flop a little. That would be perfect if he could win something for her! The only problem was, Roxas was extremely clumsy. So this would be quite a challenge. "Well, um, sure." Roxas puffed up his chest and put on his serious face. _I must be successful!_

The two blonds walked over to the arcade in the middle of the park and were met with tons of beeping and chiming sounds. Some overweight kid was playing DDR and Roxas was amazed that he could have such skills. He tried playing that game once and ended up falling on his face, quite gracefully.

Naminé gazed up at the stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling. Oh perfect! If he got her one of those then she could cuddle something at night that reminded her of him…

"Which one do you want…?" Roxas inquired.

"_That devil plushie up there is so inaccurate…"_ Devil Roxas critiqued dryly, having snuck back onto Roxas' shoulder.

"Hmmm…" Naminé's eyes lit up mischievously and she pointed up towards the corner of the arcade. "That one."

"What one?"

"That one."

"That one?"

"No, that one."

"The giraffe?"

"No, the monkey."

"_What the hell?" _The devil exclaimed incredulously at her choice.

"The…the monkey?" Roxas gulped.

"Yes, the monkey."

"Why the monkey?" Roxas did not want to try to win that thing. Why? One: you would have to spend about a year here in order to win enough tickets from the games to actually get the thing, it was the most highly priced object there. Two: It was bigger than _he_ was. It was a big fat brown gorilla…_thing._ For a stuffed animal it wasn't even cute. How could they even fit that in the car on the ride home?

"Because I like monkeys." Naminé shrugged; then turned towards Roxas, grabbing both his hands. "Please? Please, will you win that for me?" She pleaded, eyes big and blue and beautiful and irresistible.

"Y-yeah, sure." Whoa, she was like a freaking hypnotist with those things.

"_Well, at least you can show your commitment to her…right?" _Angel Roxas provided, trying to make the situation a little more hopeful.

"_She better freaking put out after this or you should ditch her forever," _the evil side of Roxas complained.

And so began Roxas' trials and tribulations to win said giant monkey for Naminé. He used all the cash in his pocket and was positively exhausted when _two hours_ went by and he only had half the amount of tickets he needed. His fingers hurt from button mashing and his eyes stung from having to stare at video screens for so long. Naminé didn't seem to notice his pain as she watched him battle things from dinosaurs to Pacman ghosts. He knew she was just excited to get her beloved gorilla; which he realized he wasn't even going to be able to get for her…_Naminé will probably never like me now…_

"Maybe we should head back…" Roxas sighed as another 'Game Over' screen flashed in front of him, and he sounded defeated after trying so very hard for her for so long. "I'm…I'm not getting anywhere with this.

Naminé pouted. "But…my Gril-gril…"

"Gril-gril?"

"_What the hell is this girl on?" _Devil Roxas asked from his lying position on Roxas' shoulder, almost too tired to make a rude remark.

"That's what I named the monkey!"

Devil Roxas sat up on his elbows now and stared at her. _"…Wow….I got nothing." _He said in regards to his lack of any kind of vulgar or perverted comment to say. _"I think I'm just gonna go…you're on your own on this one, Roxas…"_

"_Which is actually a __good__ thing considering no advice you give could ever help him." _The opposite conscience stated matter-of-factly. He then spread his feathery white wings and flapped his way up to Roxas' ear, raising a hand to his mouth and whispering, _"Don't worry, I'll stick around to help you, thank goodness he is leaving!"_

During this time, Roxas' poor little angel did not notice the devil sneak his way around Roxas' shoulder and before the angel could resist, the devil grabbed hold of him from behind and pulled him in close to himself.

"_A-Ah! H-hey! What in God's name do you think you're doing?!" _the other cried out in surprise, trying to squirm away.

"_Hmph, you really thought I would let you get away with staying here with Roxas without me making sure you have no influence over him?" _the devil asked slyly, maintaining his grip on his opposite. _"Well…think again, cuz you're comin' with me." _

"_Ahhh! Get offa me!" _The little cherub squeaked desperately before a black cloud consumed them both and they disappeared with angel Roxas yelling his apologies to Roxas and failed attempts to get devil Roxas to release him.

"Um, earth to Roxaaaaas?" Naminé said in a sing-song voice, leaning over so she could look into his blank expression, her blonde hair falling past her shoulder. "Are you okay? Your face is really red."

Roxas quickly raised his gaze to hers again and racked his brain to try to recall what was going on, "Oh! Um, yeah, s-sorry, I just…I don't think I can get…'Gril-gril' for you Naminé, I'm really sorry…" He glanced down again at the large amount of tickets bunched in his hand that just weren't enough to win it.

"Oh…" she breathed, lowering her eyes too and looking disappointed.

"Hey…do you guys need tickets or something? Darkness?"

The two blonds turned to see none other than Riku standing before them, dressed more like he was going to a funeral than ready for a sunny day at a theme park. Roxas hadn't seen him since the Spring Fling, and since he was secretly hoping to never see him again, it made his dreary mood drop even more. What were the odds of seeing him here the same day? God was a sick, sick person who liked to toy with Roxas' life. That was for sure.

"Oh my gosh! Riku!" Naminé exclaimed happily, stepping forward to give him a hug but withdrawing when he twitched spasmodically. "Um…so what brings you here?"

"Sora. And darkness."

"Oh…how…nice. So, uh, where is Sora?"

Riku shrugged and pointed over to a fighting game in which said boy was loosing miserably. He was smacking the machine ineffectively, shouting curses.

Naminé giggled and Roxas rolled his eyes. Those two were so freaking _weird_.

"So you mentioned something about tickets?" Roxas asked quickly, getting to the point.

"Yeah. None of the games here have enough darkness for me and none of the prizes do either, so here." Riku held out yellow arcade tickets to them. There were so many it seemed as if they were spilling from his hand.

Naminé accepted the tickets and joined them with the ones that Roxas had obtained too. "Thank you!" she chirped before running towards the desk where one could redeem their tickets for prizes, without a backward glance.

Roxas was left to stand there awkwardly with Riku, who was muttering under his breath about darkness or something. If the guy hadn't just helped Roxas win Naminé a prize, the blond probably would have slapped him across the face. The two were soon distracted when Sora's yells grew louder and they saw that he was being pulled away from the game by two security guards. Riku just stared blankly.

"Uh." Roxas said, pursing his lips. "Maybe you should go…help your friend and stuff."

"Hmm?" Riku seemed to snap out of whatever he was thinking about – most likely darkness. "Oh…yeah…"

The boy began to twitch a little as he walked away slowly, and Roxas was secretly thankful that he was going away even though the guy had just helped him out. There were only a few people that he could stand nowadays. There was Axel…and Naminé…and Axel…wait. Wow. Only two? That was kind of sad.

And before Roxas knew it, there was a gigantic gorilla staring him in the face.

"Look! I got him Roxas!" Naminé shouted cheerfully from behind the big fuzzy thing.

Roxas smiled. "Yeah…awesome."

"Would you mind holding him for me?" Naminé asked, and it was weird, since the huge stuffed animal covered her up completely so Roxas felt like he was actually talking to it instead of her.

"O-oh…um…of course not." Roxas knew this was a rule that had to be followed when out on a date with girls. Hold stuff for them. Whether it be a door, their coat, or their purse, it had to be done. Naminé transferred the big monkey to Roxas' arms and he lost his balance for a moment at its surprising weight.

"Thanks again for winning it for me…even if it wasn't completely all on your own."

"No propflem," Roxas tried to say, but the monkey's fake fur got into his mouth so it didn't come out right. He did wish he'd been able to win it for her all on his own though. That would have been pretty impressive. The boy privately cursed whoever thought of the idea to make park-goers shell out tons of money to win prizes that were probably made in China and worth 1/50 of what he spent. Damn them. Damn them all to hell.

"So do you want to go on some more rides?" Naminé asked next.

"Um…I don'f know. We should profableh get back to Axel," Roxas said as he tried to spit fur from his mouth again. He wanted to make sure that Axel was okay. He had been worrying.

"Oh, but…we've only been on one so far! Come on, Roxas, you know you want to."

Actually, Roxas knew that he _didn't_ want to. His eyes were all stingy and he wanted to see Axel again. Plus, carrying around that big ass monkey would not be fun.

Roxas couldn't see her through the stuffed animal, so he was understandably startled when Naminé touched his arm with her hand. "Please?"

It was as if she pressed a button on Roxas that turned off his free will. So Roxas agreed, and the two, well, three of them spent another two hours together. They rode the teacups with Gril-gril in between them, for example. Definitely Roxas' idea of romance. But Naminé was having a good time, and that's all that mattered, right? Most of the time Roxas couldn't see Naminé, because he was carrying the monkey and needed her to guide him with her hand, but hearing her laugh made it pretty much worth it.

Finally, when the sun was starting to set, they made their way back to the bench where they had left Axel and Olette.

"Who are you and what have you done with Roxas?" Axel demanded as they approached, glaring at the gorilla that was hiding Roxas' entire body.

"I'm right here," the blond said, setting the huge ass thing down so Axel could see him and so he could see Axel.

Axel looked a lot hotter-er, _better_ since the last time Roxas saw him. The color had returned to his face and it seemed as if he was back to full health. The redhead smiled at him and stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I know, I know. So did you two have a good time?"

"Yes!" Naminé cheered, and to Roxas' astonishment she lunged forward and hugged him from the side, burying her face into his shoulder and popping her right foot into the air. Roxas felt himself go red in the face and his brain turn to mush.

Axel looked just as surprised as Roxas felt at this sudden public display of affection. His grin kind of faded away for a moment and he raised his eyebrows, but then it came back and he gave Roxas a thumbs-up.

"Awwww!" Olette cooed, breaking the silence. "You two are soooo cute!"

"Yeah," the redhead agreed, scratching the back of his head. "Really cute."

Naminé pulled away and Roxas thought about how pretty her eyes were again.

Axel walked over to the gorilla stuffed animal with a funny expression on his face and avoiding Roxas' gaze. He almost seemed ill again…but then he asked calmly, "So…how are we going to fit this thing in my car?", poking 'Gril-gril' with his foot.

Everyone kind of blinked and stared at it. "Uh…"

Well, that was going to be a fun thing to attempt.

* * *

"Hey, look," Axel said suddenly with a soft laugh, looking into the backseats through the rearview mirror in his car. "They're asleep."

Roxas turned in his seat to see that what Axel had said was true. Somehow they had managed to fit the gorilla stuffed animal in the car, though it was kind of bent over in an awkward position that kind of made it look like it was giving itself head according to devil Roxas. Yeah, Roxas was really grateful for that lovely thought. Olette and Naminé where on either side of the stuffed animal, each leaning on it and sleeping. It was really cute looking. Well, Naminé was anyway. She was even drooling a bit in her sleep. How precious!

Olette looked dead.

"Uh…is Olette breathing?" Axel asked a little worriedly, going along with Roxas' thoughts.

Roxas studied her for a moment before responding, "Uh…I have no idea."

"Do me a favor and poke her for me?" Axel grinned now, but still looked apprehensive. "Uh, I really hope that I can go home and say that no one died in my car tonight."

Roxas let out a high pitched, girly, nervous giggle that made Axel look at him questionably. Then he cleared his throat to re-establish his masculinity. "Sure."

As instructed, he reached back and poked the girl's arm lightly, which elicited a loud snort from her, making Roxas jump back. Axel laughed and Roxas beamed at his ability to draw out such happy sounds from his crush. All he needed to do now was educe sounds of immense pleasure from him; genuine ones, not fake-phone-call ones.

"Well, now that that's cleared up, I can ask you: how'd things go with Naminé?" Axel murmured curiously after his laughter died down.

"Um, things went pretty good…" What a way to be specific, but Roxas didn't really know what to say. Since he didn't have much experience with dating he wasn't sure how dates were supposed to go. "We rode some more rides and played in the arcade." For some reason he just didn't _feel_ like being specific. "How'd it go with Olette?"

Axel rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. "Arrrrgh, don't remind me. That girl talked my ear off. It was absolute torture. I missed you, man."

"O-oh." Roxas blushed deeply and tried not to let Axel see his grin. _Axel missed me!_ "I'm sorry…"

Axel waved a hand indifferently. "Nah, don't worry about it. So it's pretty awesome that you won Naminé something, huh?"

"Yeah, but I didn't win it all on my own. I saw that Riku guy and he helped out," Roxas admitted.

"Uh…that darkness kid?" Axel bit his lip and looked like he was about to laugh again.

"Yeah."

"Wow. Man, must have been fun to see him again," Axel said sardonically, smirking. "I'm sure she's really happy that you got her that though. Even though it's kind of…ugly."

Roxas pressed his lips together and nodded. "Yeah…yeah that's what I thought too."

The two boys looked at each other with funny expressions before they burst out laughing, trying to cover their mouths so they wouldn't wake the girls.

"Girls can have such…a weird taste in things," Axel stated. "I don't even think I should be helping you sometimes…every girl is hard to figure out, really. Despite popular belief, they're not all the same."

Roxas nodded. Axel was like some kind of all-knowing love guru. It was awesome and sexy. But what the redhead had said reminded Roxas of something he'd been wondering for a while. He traced the patterns on his pants while he worked up the courage to ask, "…Why are you helping me anyway, Axel?" The other boy probably had a lot of better things to do with his life, and Roxas couldn't help but question why he was being so helpful. Not that he was complaining or anything. He loved having the other guy around. Axel was hot, helpful, supportive, hot, kind, intelligent, and hot. What more could a little bisexual boy ask for?

Axel's brows knit together and he glanced away from the road to look at Roxas inquisitively. "Hmm? Uh, well. Uh. I…really don't know. Why?" He looked like someone had just proposed some kind of new philosophy to him that he now had to ponder.

Axel had done things for him today that he had obviously not been too willing to do, and Roxas felt guilty. "I just…don't want you to think you have to or anything," the blond said, gazing out the car window and watching the night lights flash by. They'd been driving for a little while now, so they were almost back to Twilight Town.

"Oh. Well, no, I want to," Axel said sincerely. "I don't know…I guess I never really thought about it before. It's like, almost an instinctive thing for me, you know? I don't even have to think about it. I guess I just want to see you happy…I mean, you like me helping you, right?" The redhead seemed a little worried now as he rambled on. "You don't want me to, uh, stop and leave you alone do you?"

"What? No! Of course not…"

"Good." Axel smiled again and reached over and ruffled the blond's hair, which thus caused the horny butterflies in Roxas' stomach decide to make their comeback.

Roxas tried to ignore them and allow himself to feel giddy about what Axel had just said but it was pretty difficult. The butterflies in stomach wanted him to have Axel so bad, they growled lustfully.

"Hungry?" Axel asked, a little amused.

"Uh, yeah…" It wasn't a complete lie. It's just that he was hungry for something a little different than what Axel was thinking.

"Well, don't worry, we'll be home soon." The redhead tapped the steering wheel with his fingers and seemed like he was about to say something, but looked hesitant. Roxas waited patiently while he tried to mentally calm down the rabid butterflies. It was a wonder that they didn't chew through his stomach and make their attack. They were really persistent today.

"So, um, I was wondering…" Axel finally said, then cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Uh…were you planning on kissing Naminé goodnight?"

Roxas' heart practically stopped beating from this question and all his horny butterflies retreated.

"W-what? Why do you ask? Should I?" He hadn't thought about that at _all_. Now that Axel said it, he realized that he had just had a date with Naminé, and wasn't that the expected thing to do?

"Well...I don't know...if you feel comfortable doing that. It is technically your second date after all. And if you wanna show her you like her…" Axel explained tonelessly.

"Uh…" Oh, _shit. _Axel was so right. _Argh, what should I do?_

"_Pfft, well, that's easy," _Devil Roxas stated upon his return like it was the most obvious thing ever. _"If you kiss her, then that can eventually lead to more fun things, if you know what I mean. Plus, it will also show Axel that you actually have some balls. And he'll totally be turned on, no doubt."_

Angel Roxas sighed and looked up at the car roof like there was actually something interesting up there. _"I don't know Roxas…I don't think it's appropriate."_

"Hey…what are you guys talking about?" a little voice asked, and Roxas turned to see that Naminé had woken up, rubbing her eyes groggily, and his consciences disappeared.

"Oh, um, nothing," Roxas said quickly. _Dammit. _Now he wouldn't be able to talk to Axel about it anymore…

"Perfect timing, Naminé, we're almost at your house," Axel told her coolly.

_Perfect timing my ass, _Roxas thought as panic welled up inside him.

Naminé sat back and smiled contently, petting her new gorilla from Roxas. Axel glanced over at Roxas and raised an eyebrow, almost as if to ask _"Well?"_

The blond squinted and tried to communicate through mind power _"I don't know what to do!" _but he figured he just looked constipated again like the last time he had tried to do such a thing with Axel.

But to his disbelief, Axel nodded as if he understood. He took a hand off the steering wheel and scratched the back of his head before smiling a little and then patting Roxas' shoulder like he was saying, _"Don't worry, you'll be fine."_

They had finally reached Naminé's house, so Roxas did not have a chance to use anymore mental telepathy with Axel. When the car had been parked, Naminé stepped out and tried to pull the monkey out with her, but was having trouble. Roxas just watched until the redhead nudged him and inclined his head at her, like _"go help her you fool!"_

"Oh. Right." Roxas said aloud, getting out of the car quickly and running around to try to help her pull it out. Despite their constant tugs and pulls, the thing refused to budge, and Olette still wouldn't wake up.

"Here, let me help," Axel sighed after their fourth attempt, and got out of the car too, standing next to Roxas and grabbing hold of the monkey's arm.

"Alright, lets do it together," Naminé said, sounding determined. "On the count of three!" she exclaimed.

"1...2...3!" The three of them pulled with all of their might and successfully got the stuffed animal out of the car, but ended up falling over from the putting so much force into it. They toppled to the ground like a pair of dominos, Roxas on top of Axel, and Naminé on top of Roxas. It was like a big, unasked for, dog pile. Roxas had his face smooshed into Axel's cheek, and Naminé was basically straddling his butt like she was riding a horse. A Roxas sandwich. Oh, this was awkward, to say the least.

Naminé rolled off and onto the ground casually and with a giggle similar to the one Roxas had let out a not too long beforehand. The blond boy immediately jolted off of Axel very gracelessly, his rear end meeting the pavement quite painfully. He realized that that was probably the closest he would ever get to having a threesome with them.

No one said anything. Axel got up and brushed his pants off quickly before offering a hand to both Roxas and Naminé, helping them up. He looked a little unsettled, which made Roxas extremely worried. The boy hoped Axel wasn't disgusted by him or anything. It was only cheek to cheek contact really and…well, he did lay on top of him, too. Did he smell bad now or something? When no one was looking, he quickly sniffed his armpits. But no, he still smelled fresh; which made sense since he had applied about ten pounds of deodorant before they had left that day.

"Uh…let me walk you to your door," Roxas said, and Naminé smiled and shoved Gril-gril into his arms. How romantic.

"'Night, Axel. Thanks for taking us today," she said sweetly.

Axel nodded his head at her and Roxas truly thought that his fake smile had returned. "Anytime. 'Night, see you in school."

As they headed up the walkway, Roxas glanced back and saw Axel get back into the car, rubbing his forehead like he had a headache. Maybe he was getting sick again…? Maybe the force of Roxas falling on his stomach upset it once more?

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to think any more about this, because they reached the doorstep of Naminé's house. She turned to him expectantly, "Goodnight Roxas. I had a really fun time today."

"Yeah?" Roxas smiled and set the monkey down next to him. "G-great." _Okay, this is it…_

Roxas took a deep breath and stepped forward, leaning in for a kiss like they did in all the classic black and white films. Alas, one of that _damned_ gorilla's legs got in the way, and he ended up tripping. He stumbled forward, bonking their heads together like the elegant teenage boy that he was not.

"Ouch…" Naminé complained, massaging the spot he had bonked.

Roxas regained his balance, and kicked the stuffed animal beside him bitterly, since she was focusing on the pain on her head now instead and wouldn't notice.

"I…I'm sorry!" he apologized awkwardly. The moment was obviously ruined, and Roxas made a mental note to wallow in self-loathing at his clumsiness later.

Naminé only smiled and held her hands behind her back. "It's okay."

The two stood there awkwardly before Roxas finally muttered, "Well, goodnight," and turned away, heading back to the car. He felt like such an idiot. He only looked back once, and saw Naminé trying to shove the gorilla through her front door unsuccessfully. He didn't feel like helping her much now though, so he ignored it.

Roxas got back in Axel's camaro and sighed, refusing to look at the redhead because he had probably seen the disaster that had just occurred.

Axel said nothing, backed out of the driveway and began to drive in the direction of Olette's house. After a minute or two, he asked quietly, "So, did you guys…uh, kiss?"

Roxas looked over at him in surprise. He hadn't seen?

"There was a big bush in the way, so I really couldn't see what was going on," Axel clarified; once again it was like he could read Roxas' thoughts, which were always filled with questions.

Roxas stared at his hands in his lap and chewed on his lip. He really didn't think that he could admit to Axel that he was a complete dork. Axel was so smooth and great at everything; Roxas wanted to try his best to impress him.

"Yeah…yeah, I did kiss her," the blond found himself lying. He chanced a glace at Axel, who nodded indifferently, still focusing on the road.

"Cool. Good for you, Roxas," Axel didn't press for any more details and gave him a small smile that made Roxas feel sick to his stomach.

"Uh…so you gonna kiss Olette goodnight?" Roxas asked stupidly for lack of anything better to say.

Axel looked back to make sure that she was still sleeping. "Are you kidding? _Hell_ no."

Roxas laughed a little, but he really didn't feel happy, even though he thought that he ought to. He only felt more confused than ever.


	7. Oblivion

**Disclaimer: **I love these characters, but they are not my own.

**Author's Note: **D'aw, I love this chapter :) Purely Axel and Roxas for you.

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter Seven: Oblivion  
**

* * *

The doorbell rang and Roxas ran to it like a bat out of hell. Flinging it open, he grinned at the figure in front of him so widely, it hurt.

There was Axel, standing there in all of his sexy glory, car keys dangling from his hand, dressed to kill. Really, Roxas felt like he was about to keel over from the heat waves that Axel seemed to be emitting. He was wearing black pants and a maroon shirt that had 'Oblivion' written across it in a graffiti style. Seeing him standing there, Roxas could have sworn that he heard a chorus of 'Hallelujah'. Only it was in an awesome rock style, guitars blaring and a lead singer screaming the words, instead of that weird gospel shit.

"Happy birthday, Roxas," Axel said; tone soft and genuine.

Roxas couldn't help it. Axel's body seemed to just be screaming 'touch me!', and he had to obey. He threw himself at the redhead, wrapping his arms around his lean form and burying his face into his chest. "Thankyousososososmuch," he blathered into his shirt, squeezing him tightly.

At first Axel had lifted his arms away in surprise, but then he brought them down to hug Roxas back, one hand wandering up and intertwining itself in the boy's hair. He laughed, and Roxas closed his eyes, inhaling his crush's scent. Roxas couldn't really describe the smell, but it wasn't like cinnamon or anything cliché like that, but it was like…the woods. After a moment Roxas figured out it was just from the air freshener in Axel's car, which was pine. Oh well, it was still wonderful. Roxas was hugging him, and Axel was hugging him back, and it was the first time it was comfortable. Last time they had embraced, it was in the camaro, and the gear shifter had dug into a pretty sensitive spot on Roxas' body. Not so comfy.

"No problem, you know I wanted to do this for you," Axel said finally, pulling away, his hands falling into place on Roxas' shoulders.

Roxas beamed, shoving his hands into his hoodie's pockets. His _Oblivion _hoodie's pockets. Oh yeah. That's right. The concert was _tonight_. He'd been looking forward to this for weeks. Finally, he and Axel were going to be alone together doing something other than studying! It was like a date! Kind of!

"I like your shirt," the blond complimented shyly to the ground, though it was directed at Axel.

"Thanks. I _love_ your hoodie, man. But aren't you hot?" Axel put his hands on his hips and shook his head in mock disapproval. "It's in the middle of spring!"

"Well…um…I'm not wearing a shirt underneath it, so…I'm okay…" Roxas admitted, and almost as if on cue, the slightly-too-big hoodie slid to the left, exposing his bare shoulder.

"O-oh," Axel said; his eyebrows raised and his expression went odd-looking.

Roxas felt himself grow hot, but it wasn't because of what he was wearing. He adjusted the hoodie, and Axel seemed to snap out of the trance he was in.

"Well, shall we go?" Axel asked, voice cracking a bit so he coughed into his hand to clear his throat.

"Yes!" Roxas cried, throwing his hands up in the air, his sleeves flopping because the hoodie was so oversized it covered his hands completely. He'd ordered it online, and they had ended up giving him the wrong size. But the concert had been too close at the time so he didn't want to send it back. His mom had told him he looked cute anyway, and mother always knew best with Roxas.

The boy practically skipped alongside Axel as they made their way to the camaro. Things had continued to be awkward between them ever since they went to Fun World. But Roxas was hoping that that would change tonight. Oblivion was so awesome they could probably work magic, in his opinion.

"So why'd you wanna pick me up so early?" Roxas inquired cheerfully as he buckled himself in.

"I wanted to take you out for coffee first," Axel replied simply.

Roxas blinked at him slowly. "You wanna go get coffee," he stated. Smooth, very smooth. When all else failed, Roxas fell back on to using repetition.

Axel hesitated for a moment. "Yeah."

Suddenly Roxas noticed the irony of his friend's proposal and smiled. "Before a huge rock concert?"

Axel hesitated for a little longer. "…Yeah."

Roxas had to suppress a laugh. The two things were completely different! Though he did feel all warm and fuzzy at the thought that that's where people usually went for dates.

Seeing the other boy's amused expression, Axel quickly added, "Well, you know, so we can talk a little before our eardrums are blasted out and get some caffeine and stuff." As he spoke, Roxas admired the way that Axel talked with his hands. Yet another thing that made him sexy without trying. "There's this awesome place that's on the way to the concert," he went on. "But, I don't know, whatever you want. It is _your _birthday after all."

The blond fiddled with his exceptionally long sleeves, trying to think of the best thing to say, since he found coffee disgusting rather than appealing. He really, really wished that he could tell Axel what he truly wanted: him. And what did he want to do? Anything of the sexual nature. But, obviously, Roxas would never be able to sum up the courage to request such a thing. And although he would be extremely delighted to do unspeakable things to the redhead, really, he was happy going just about anywhere with him.

"_Coffee is sexy…" _the evil conscious said almost as if to himself from his sitting position on Roxas' shoulder, no longer able to stay silent. Stroking his chin with his forefinger, he put in, _"Hmm, yeah, you should go. I think we can work with that. It's got that whole relaxed, sensual feel to it." _He nodded thoughtfully, like this was his expertise.

There was a 'poof' and Roxas' angel stepped out a white cloud that faded away quicker than usual. _"Roxas doesn't even like coffee!" _he spluttered right away, throwing his hands up in the air.

The devil only smirked. _"Sooo? He likes Axel. And one must make sacrifices in order to get what one wants." _

"_Roxas. Is. Straight." _the angel stated through gritted teeth.

"_Straight as a circle, maybe…" _the other snickered.

"…Um, Roxas? So would you like some coffee or no…?" Axel asked uncertainly due to the delayed response. He was looking at Roxas worriedly, pulling on a lock of his hair repeatedly for some reason.

"_Don't lie, Roxas. You told him you kissed Naminé when you really didn't, and that's not a very nice way to treat a friend," _the angel advised, shooting the devil a dirty look. _"And then remember when you lied about art club?"_

Roxas thought back to when he had pretended to like art so he could get closer to Naminé. He had _almost _made a complete fool of himself, but things had gone pretty well besides that.

"_If I do recall correctly, that ended with Axel on top of Roxas on the ground. Went pretty well, if you ask me." _The devil leaned against his pitchfork and examined his fingernails smugly.

"_Uh, that was an __accident__. And you convincing Roxas to lie had nothing to do with it." _The angel sighed. _"Really, Roxas. Make up for all these shameful homosexual thoughts you've been having lately by at least not lying!"_

Roxas pondered this. He didn't want to lie again, his angelic conscience was making him feel bad enough already because of that. But it really wasn't much of a lie – it was only coffee – and he wanted things to be _normal _between Axel and himself, he could barely stand the uneasiness between them anymore. Maybe this would help. So before he could stop himself, he blurted out, "Sure let's go get coffee!"

Angel Roxas' mouth dropped open and he looked like tears were about to come streaming from his eyes from his useless efforts. The devil only did a sexy little dance of triumph for getting Roxas to do the 'wrong' thing.

"Alright then." Axel grinned and he revved the engine, the sound of Oblivion met their ears as they sped off down the road. It was a dream come true for Roxas, spending his birthday with one of his crushes. They sang together on the way there, horribly, but it was still special. Like a weird, terribly off-pitch duet.

It wasn't long before they arrived at a quaint little place, called 'Twilight Café', on the outskirts of town.

"This one of my favorite places." Axel said as he opened the door.

Before Roxas had the chance to reply, the strong scent of coffee beans smacked him in the face. Whoa. It took him a second to clear his senses of the unpleasant smell. He then observed the place had paintings all over the walls and lights hanging from the ceiling that looked like stars. It had a totally relaxed feel to it, with music softly playing. It seemed like a place that artists might like, from what he knew anyway, seeing that he didn't really have a creative bone in his body. But he knew that Axel was into art, and was actually good at it too, so it fit.

"What would you like?" Axel asked him as he pulled out his wallet. "It's on me, birthday boy."

"Uh…" Roxas really thought coffee tasted like cardboard in liquid form. He got his caffeine from soda pop. So, naturally, he had no idea what he was talking about. "I'll take one of those crap-o-chino things."

Axel stopped digging through his money, and the barista behind the counter raised an eyebrow.

"Uh. I think you're getting 'frappuccino' and 'cappuccino' mixed up, Roxas," Axel corrected with an amused grin.

"Oh. Right," Roxas said stupidly, looking down at his checkered shoes and hoping his bangs hid his blush well enough.

"…Do you actually like coffee?" Axel questioned, brows knitting together.

Thinking fast, Roxas replied at lightning speed, "Uh sure. I just like my coffee black. Like my men."

Axel looked flabbergasted for a moment but then burst out laughing. It took Roxas a second to realize that he had actually made a joke and he chuckled a little bit too.

"Man, Roxas. Wow. Never thought a thing like that would come out of your mouth. You are just full of surprises."

_Oh, you have no idea._

"So, one plain coffee and I'll have the Mocha Chocha frappuccino."

_Mocha…Chocha…? _Roxas thought as he examined the menu board along with all its weird names._ Who would want a drink that sounds like it going to choke you? What is __wrong__ with this place?_

"Would you like whipped cream on that?" the barista asked, flipping his indigo hair to try to get it out of the way of his eye. He was unsuccessful.

Axel agreed on the whipped cream – on his drink only, to Roxas' dismay – and they sat down with their drinks at a little table by the window. Roxas stared down at his cup like it was the black lagoon. The deep abyss. 20,000 leagues under the…icky smelling brown liquid.

"You're pretty tough for taking your coffee plain like that. Though I guess straight-A kids like yourself need lots of caffeine, huh?" the redhead said thoughtfully, licking the whipped cream off of his drink.

_Oh God. Licking._

Roxas tried to look away. He really did. But, it was like a train-wreck. How does one look away from something like that? This was so not fair to him!

Axel took some on his finger and licked it slowly as he watched a few people walk by, and Roxas' eyes practically rolled into the back of his head because of how freaking sexy it looked.

Noticing Roxas' awestruck expression out of the corner of his eye, the redhead paused, finger still in his mouth. "Shomething wong?" he asked through the digit.

Roxas swallowed thickly. "Yeah…uh…no…yeah. Maybe," he stuttered.

Axel released the finger and set his hand on the table, which almost relieved Roxas of his fantasy, but glancing down he could still see the finger all slick with saliva and…and…

"I'm just still in shock that we are going to go see Oblivion," Roxas somehow managed to choke out, saving himself.

Axel lifted his frappuccino, tipped his head back to drink from it; then set it down, revealing that he had a nice new whipped cream mustache. "Ah, I know, kick ass, right? I'm psyched."

Roxas stared. Everything Axel had said went in one ear and out the other, because all that he could really focus on at the moment was: moustache.

"Do I have something on my face?" Axel asked, seeming scandalized by the look Roxas was giving him.

"Um, yeah." The boy pursed his lips together. "All up in here." He gestured to the area on his own mouth.

Axel wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked down at the moustache that was now on his arm. "Wow. Pfft. Thanks for letting me know." With that, the redhead decided to go back to removing the cream with his fingers, sucking on them like it was some daily event that was completely normal and couldn't possibly turn Roxas on in any way. The blond had to bite back a moan just from watching him.

"Mmm, I love whipped cream," Axel sighed as he continued.

"I love that you love whipped cream," Roxas breathed in awe.

The older teen gave him a weird look and then asked, "Aren't you gonna drink any of yours? Is it hot enough for you?"

"Oh it's definitely hot enough…" Roxas all but stuttered, not talking about his drink, but he quickly raised it to his lips, forcing it down and trying his best not to spit it out. He ended up having to cross his legs under the table and drinking the strong coffee was the only thing that kept his lower half under control.

"So…I've been meaning to ask you." Axel said casually, swirling his finger in the last of the cream and licking it away one last time, and it was like someone had stuck a pin in Roxas, because he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and finally let his limbs relax. "Why do you like Naminé so much?"

Now that Axel was no longer unknowingly teasing him with erotic acts, Roxas could think a little more clearly. At least, he thought he would be able to. "Uh…"

Axel rested a hand under his chin and looked at Roxas expectantly. That was kind of an out of the blue question from the redhead. _Why does he care?_

Roxas' eyes traveled to the ceiling as if there might be an answer up there. He figured that he was just having a brain fart or having trouble recovering from the recent display of finger sucking, because he was finding it difficult coming up with an answer. It should have been easy, right? He had liked Naminé for so long now…

"Well," he finally said, "she's really cute. And…well, I-I don't really know why else…" he admitted sheepishly. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't want to talk about why he liked someone else to one of his crushes.

"Hmm," Axel scratched his temple and looked a little distant. "Well, like, do you two get along well on your own? You didn't tell me much about the Fun World trip. Do you guys have anything in common?"

Roxas thought about this. And thought and thought. Axel waited patiently, sipping his drink.

"We get along alright, yeah." Roxas nodded. "But, I mean, she's a girl and she likes girly stuff and it's hard to have things in common, right?"

"Sure…" Axel agreed unconvincingly, but he smiled. "I understand that it's hard to figure out why you like someone though, believe me. Give it s'more time, I guess." Halfway through his sentence he began tugging on his earlobe restlessly. Weird…

"Why'd you wanna know?" Roxas asked curiously.

"Well," Axel cleared his throat and looked serious now. "I guess I was wondering if you two…were gonna go out now." He lowered his eyes to the table. "You guys did, uh…you know. When you said goodnight, right?"

It took Roxas a second to figure out what Axel was talking about. Then, "Oh!" The blond felt his stomach twist and it wasn't because of the nasty coffee he'd been drinking. Memories came flooding back of when he had attempted to kiss Naminé, and failed miserably. Then once again he felt that stab of guilt because he lied to Axel and said that he did kiss her.

"Uh," he said. "Well, we haven't really talked about it."

Axel seemed confused by this statement and Roxas' heartbeat began to pick up. "Really? I figured you'd be too shy to say anything to her but I thought for sure she'd talk to you about it…"

"Oh r-really?" Roxas' stomach was gaining more and more knots of guilt and he wondered how much longer he could keep this up. He didn't like lying to Axel…the guy was his only friend, and here he was, treating him like this… "Well, I guess we haven't gotten the chance yet."

Roxas made the mistake of looking up and their eyes met. This made him feel even more shameful, because all traces of a smile had left Axel's face and he still seemed skeptical.

"But you sit right next to her in math and you even eat lunch with her sometimes." the older boy pointed out.

Roxas wanted the sink down in his seat and try to hide his face underneath the table, because it was probably giving him away. He laughed nervously, "Haha, well, you know, I gotta pay attention in math and then during lunch her friends won't even let me get a word in!" Well, this part was true. And really, they hadn't talked about it because…it hadn't happened. Roxas figured Naminé probably knew that he had tried to kiss her, but she never brought it up. And he was actually thankful for that since the memory embarrassed him.

Axel leaned back in his chair, seeming to believe him now. "Oh, okay. Yeah, those chicks never shut up. And you're a little math dork so that makes sense."

"Hey! I am not a 'math dork', you…you math slacker!" Roxas crossed his arms and huffed.

"_Me_ the slacker? _I'm _the one who finishes the homework first when we work together lately; you're so distracted all the time," Axel teased back.

Roxas couldn't deny it; he was always worrying about both Naminé and Axel, not to mention he liked to watch the older teen scribbling out equations, sticking his tongue out when he erased fervently and Roxas found himself observing him more than anything else.

"I'm not the one who's failing math though," Roxas said.

"But I'm getting better, thanks to you," Axel countered with a smirk.

Glad the subject was changed from Naminé, Roxas leaned his elbows on the table and asked, "How's your fappy-chino?"

"_Frappuccino,"_ Axel corrected again with a laugh. "It's fantastic. Wanna try some?"

Roxas was taken a little aback by this offer but nodded enthusiastically. "Sure."

Axel pushed the drink across the table to him with a generous smile, and the blond took it.

_Axel's mouth touched this…so it's like a fraction of a kiss, _Roxas thought in math terms, with uncontrollable glee.

He drank some and his mind almost exploded from the chocolate-y goodness and the thought that his lips were making contact with something that Axel's had. He never had thought that coffee could actually taste _good._ "Whooooooaaaa. This _is _fantastic," he exclaimed with wide eyes after he swallowed. Not to mention cold, soothing his throat from his own black coffee that had burned it a little.

"I told you," Axel said smugly. "You can have the rest of it, if you want."

"Oh, but it's yours." Roxas protested, trying to be polite.

"Nah, you barely drank any of your coffee, go ahead," he encouraged. "Take it, birthday boy."

"Thanks…" The boy grinned like an idiot and took another gulp.

Axel moved to place his hand back down on the table, not watching his own actions because he was distracted by an eight-foot tall man who was towering over the counter nearby. Roxas was a bit perplexed by the man's height too, but his attention was brought quickly back to the table when he felt Axel's fingers suddenly brushing against his skin. A jolt went through his body from the accidental contact of their hands and the two jumped a little, both drawing their hands back quickly.

"S-sorry. I wasn't looking – sorry," Axel stammered, placing his hands under the table in his lap as if to prevent them from doing anything else. Like touching Roxas was a bad thing.

"It's alright," said Roxas quickly, a little hurt from his friend's reaction. The redhead turned his head and stared out the window, while Roxas lifted the frappuccino and drank from it, each avoiding each other's eyes and the awkwardness.

Apparently, it was time for Roxas' devil to make yet another appearance. _"Wooow. Could the sexual tension between you two be any more obvious?"_

Choking and spluttering on his drink for what felt like millionth time, Roxas elicited a concerned look from his redheaded friend. _"In order for there to be sexual tension doesn't the other person have to want you, too?" _he shot back.

"_Um. Helloooo. Are you stupid? Axel is like a big blob of goo around you. How could he not want you?"_ Devil Roxas responded. _"He totally meant to touch you, that was no accident."_

"_It was too! And how is it that you always manage to make it here before I do?"_ the miniature angel conscience asked irritably when he emerged.

"_Cuz I'm quick as a whip, baby. Wpsh!"_ the other replied, thrusting his hips to the side and imitating the sound of a whiplash.

"_Anyways,"_ angel Roxas went on, ignoring him. "_Axel is just being a good friend. He's not a 'blob of goo'. He's just nice. And he just wasn't watching where he was setting his hand, that's all. Nothing more."_

"Hey, Roxas, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, okay?" Axel interrupted on his thoughts, getting up and running a hand through his hair.

Roxas was thankful to have some time to think. Man, this was kind of turning out like a date - it was getting really gay - not that he minded or anything.

He looked down at his hand, and even though Axel had touched it for just a split second, his skin still felt tingly there.

"_Roxas, you're just going through a phase,"_ his angel told him. _"Remember, most people have homosexual thoughts at some point in their lives. It doesn't mean you're automatically damned. Just as long as you don't act on them."_

"_Oh, I think you are already too far gone, Roxas,"_ the devil disagreed. _"You've been thinking of him this way for over two months now!"_

"_Well, obviously he doesn't want to because some part of him doesn't want to and thinks it's wrong. That part is also known as, myself."_ The cherub Roxas crossed his arms indignantly.

"_I see your mouth moving but all I hear is 'blah blah blah I'm in denial that I like men, blah.' How strange,"_ the opposite conscience commented sardonically. _"Anyway, the way Axel looks at you, you can tell he's totally hopelessly gay for you. That's why he's taking you all these places you've never gone before. Next stop: Pleasure Island." _He snickered.

Angel Roxas rolled his eyes. _"You are largely misinterpreting Axel's actions and only seeing what you want to see-"_

"Back." Axel's words cut right through the boy's thoughts, causing the representations of his conscience to vanish. "Miss me?" The older teen seemed more composed now, but didn't sit back down in his seat.

"O-of course," Roxas smiled up at him.

"Do you want anything to eat before we go?" Axel asked, motioning to the counter where you could get sandwiches and other snacks.

"No, I'm okay." Roxas said, he didn't want to make Axel treat him to anything more, but his tummy decided that this would be the perfect moment to growl.

"Sounds like your stomach disagrees," the redhead pointed out, reaching forward and poking it.

"Hey!" Roxas pushed his chair back and guarded his belly.

"I'll get you a sandwich," Axel decided with a wave of his hand and without Roxas' consent, walking over to order one.

_That was weird,_ Roxas thought. Did going potty make him suddenly all laid-back again…? It was like Axel went through some transformation in there. Like Clark Kent turning into Superman via a phone booth. But this was weird-acting Axel turning into normal Axel via a toilet…

The redhead returned with two ice cream sandwiches in hand.

"Dude, how'd you know I liked those?" Roxas exclaimed happily and practically started drooling all over himself.

"Because _I_ like them, and you'd have to be crazy not to," Axel replied with a shrug, handing Roxas his and taking a seat. "We seem to have the same taste in a lot of things anyway."

Roxas was about to take a bite when he realized that this was true. They both liked ice cream sandwiches, along with loving Oblivion, they shared the same favorite song, and their hatred for specific trig functions…Axel was even introducing to Roxas to new things that he liked too, like that Mocha Choca thing.

As they ate, Roxas noticed Axel start tugging on his earlobe again. Man, that was getting annoying. Roxas tried to ignore it, but he kept seeing the constant movement out of the corner of his eye. Over and over and over and over and-

"Would you stop already?" he finally blurted out, irritated.

Axel paused with his ice cream sandwich still in his mouth, then after a moment his face got all scrunched up and he spit it out. "Ah! Brain freeze!"

Roxas bit his lip to try not to laugh as Axel pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to make it go away. It was so cute. Once Axel got a hold of himself he took a deep breath and asked, "Stop what?"

"That weird habit." Roxas explained. "You keep pulling on your hair and your ear…you've never done that before."

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize," Axel apologized, looking down at his lap. "Shit, it's just…ah, never mind."

"What?" Roxas demanded.

"Uh…." Axel started to pull on his hair again, but then noticed and stopped abruptly. "I quit smoking…." he admitted to his lap. "I haven't had a cigarette in almost three weeks now. I guess I picked up another bad habit in place of it, since I used to smoke when I was nervous…"

Roxas couldn't tear his eyes from the older teen. Three weeks ago…was when Axel showed him the Oblivion tickets. And it was when Roxas had an allergic reaction to his smoke…! Axel had said he was going to try not to do it around him anymore, but did he seriously quit entirely? _For me…? And he did it when he was _nervous_?_

"Why…why did you do that?" Roxas asked in a quiet voice, hoping for the answer he was thinking.

"Well, I guess I got some inspiration," Axel said with a smile. Roxas' eyes widened and he dropped his ice cream onto the table by mistake. The other boy laughed and the blond felt his face turn crimson, but the two grabbed some napkins and cleaned it up together. Roxas wasn't about to let the subject drop though.

"What was your inspiration?" he asked.

Axel stopped mopping up the ice cream with the paper cloth, and seemed a little uncertain for a moment. "Oh, well, you know. Mainly that I don't want lung cancer or anything."

But the glance that the redhead gave him almost confirmed Roxas' suspicions.

The blond could have reached across the table, grabbed Axel by the collar of his shirt and kissed him. He really wanted to. And it would've been nice, considering there would be no chance that Axel would taste like an ash tray. In fact, he probably would have tasted like ice cream at the moment.

But Axel leaned back in his chair and began to finish off his own ice cream sandwich, so even if Roxas had gotten the courage, the opportunity was gone.

"So, now that we have had our ice cream and caffeine…" the redhead said calmly once they had finished their food, he suddenly exclaimed, "are you ready to rock?!", standing up abruptly from his seat, throwing his hands up in the air. This caused his chair to topple over with a loud clatter and everyone in the café turned to stare. Roxas noticed Axel's cheeks turn a little pink with embarrassment, so he decided to save the day.

"Hell yeah!" Roxas yelled as loud as he could, standing up and knocking his chair over too.

Axel beamed, a few people coughed, and the barista gave them a death stare.

"Sorry…" they both mumbled, fixing their chairs, before heading out of the coffee shop, laughing.

Once in the car and all buckled in, Axel handed Roxas a piece of paper and asked, "Would you mind reading me the directions there as we go along?"

"No problem." Roxas agreed, taking it and looking it over.

Once they reached the highway, Axel turned to him and said, "So, are you getting excited? I mean, we are actually going to see them live."

Roxas grinned at Axel's enthusiasm. "Dude, I know!" He could feel adrenaline beginning to pump through his veins and he had to try really hard not to act like a girl. They were seeing Oblivion. The band that had made Roxas realize that Axel wasn't such a bad guy, despite his previous beliefs. "I can hardly even believe it. We'll be in their rock godly presence!"

"Yeah, and hopefully since we are going so early, we can be one of the first inside," Axel said, pressing his foot to the gas and causing the car to accelerate a little more. "So, what exit do I get off first?"

Roxas looked down at the directions, and noticed that his smile refused to go away. His cheeks were starting to hurt. "Exit thirteen," he replied and his hoodie slid down his arm, revealing his shoulder once more.

Axel turned toward him, and didn't look away. "…Exit thirteen huh?" he asked, a little dazed looking.

Roxas wondered why Axel was looking at him so strangely and felt his aching, smiling cheeks turn red. "Yeah…"

"Hmm…" Axel nodded absently, and Roxas got the feeling he wasn't listening. Or paying attention to the road. The car began to swerve a bit and Roxas gasped, grabbing at his hoodie above where his heart was in reaction, thus causing it to cover himself again.

"Axel!" he gasped, pointing to the guard rail they were about to hit.

"Shit!" The redhead quickly jerked the steering wheel and went back to focusing on his driving.

--------------

"Holy crap that's a lot of people," Roxas breathed in awe, freezing in the middle of closing the passenger car door.

"Holy crap is right," Axel agreed, staring at the huge line of people that was entering the concert dome to see the show.

"So much for getting here early..." Roxas teased, referring to the fact that Axel somehow kept missing all the exits and roads that he had to turn down even though he had the directions read to him the whole time. They got lost several times, causing them to be so late that they missed when the doors to the concert opened and many people had already gotten inside. Not that Roxas really minded, as long as they didn't miss Oblivion.

"Hey, that's totally not my fault," Axel said in his defense as he walked around the length of his car to fall into step with Roxas.

The other boy gave him a skeptical look. "Oh really? Whose fault is it then?"

"Uh." Axel struggled for an answer before deciding on, "It was no one's fault. There was just some, uh, distractions."

As they crossed the parking lot, feeling the pulsing beat of the stadium through the ground underneath them, Roxas asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Axel scratched his nose and then said, "It doesn't matter, we're here now, this is gonna be so kick ass. Look at my hands, they're shaking."

Axel held out a hand in example for Roxas, and it was indeed trembling like he said. If possible, Roxas' grin grew wider, and his face still hurt from smiling so much all day. His cheek muscles weren't used to it. Roxas had never been much of a smiler, so this was quite the work out. And his mind couldn't really comprehend all this excitement and wonderfulness; Oblivion, his favorite band since what felt like forever, and Axel, on his birthday. This was quite possibly his best birthday _ever_.

The two boys probably would have died before admitting it, but Oblivion was pretty mainstream and therefore attracted a lot of fans; so they had to park really far away. But the speakers of the concert dome clearly had been cranked because they could hear the opening band inside very clearly.

"The band right now kind of sucks," Roxas observed.

"Yeah, I was just thinking that," Axel agreed as they walked along.

Finally when they reached the street they had to cross in order to get to the main entrance, Roxas eagerly stepped out on to it, eyes solely focused on the dome. But less than a second later, he felt a hand suddenly wrap painfully around his arm. Gasping, he was pulled back and a car he hadn't even seen zoomed by, so close that his bangs were blown backwards by its passing. His previously rapidly beating heart seemed to stop in that moment. Especially since Axel had pulled him in so quick that their bodies were now pressed together.

"Whoa, Roxas." Axel laughed humorlessly. The boy lifted his head to blink at him, seeing a nervous smile on his friend's face. "That was close."

"Yeah…" Roxas murmured, swallowing thickly since Axel's hand was still holding his arm tightly and they were still so close. "Sorry."

To his dismay, Axel pulled away and cleared his throat. "S'Alright. Just be more careful, you scared the shit out of me," he half-scolded. "You can't see Oblivion if you're road kill."

If Roxas' heart could have grown wings, a face, and a voice to say 'tee hee' and fly away in bliss, it would have. Axel saved him and he was scared for him! Roxas wanted to kiss him again.

"Okay, the coast is clear, let's go," Axel said in regards to the empty road, ruining another possible kissing moment that Roxas probably wouldn't have taken because he was too chicken. They crossed at a quick jog and only had to wait in line for a few minutes in order to get inside. And inside, it was even louder.

The dome looked even larger indoors and it was dark, yet with tons of strobe and colored lights. It was enough to get anyone's adrenaline pumping. Or give them a seizure. There was a sea of hundreds, even thousands of people, already jumping up and down to the opening act's music. It was chaotic, and it was awesome.

Axel said something to him, but Roxas couldn't understand at all because of how loud everything was.

"What?" he yelled over the terrible guitar solo that was currently going on, and even his own voice sounded muffled to him.

"I said let's go over there!" Axel shouted, pointing to the first area in front of the stage. "I bought us tickets for that section, all we gotta do is try to get a good spot!"

"Okay!"

They pushed their way through most of the crowd, trying to squeeze in so that when Oblivion came on, they would have a great view. It wasn't an easy task; most people were resistant to give up their position. Luckily Axel was tall and had unique enough hair where Roxas could keep an eye on him without losing sight of him. This didn't mean they didn't get separated though. Several times Axel would push past some people, but then the path would close and Roxas would get left behind, making him curse his shortness under his breath.

"Axel, wait!" Roxas called for what felt like the tenth time when two large men stepped in front of him and blocked his way.

He was only able to see some red spikes sticking up from the crowd, and he jumped up and down as he watched them draw closer. Axel separated both men with his hands like he was walking through a saloon doorway and the movement of the crowd caused the two students to be shoved into each other before rebounding off.

The redhead made some sort of grunt of frustration and squirmed to try to get away from the girls he was now lodged between. They continued to be bumped and jostled around helplessly like a pair of ping pong balls until Axel, as he ducked some unidentified flying object, shouted, "You know what, fuck it! Take my hand, Roxas!"

Roxas' eyes bulged and he tried to keep his balance against the people running into him and from what Axel said. "What?" he yelled back, positive that he had heard wrong.

"Take my hand!" the older teen repeated louder. "Don't ask, just do it!"

Roxas could only gawk at him, so Axel himself reached forward and grabbed the boy's hand, turning on his heel fast to lead them through the crowd.

Axel's hand was a lot different from Naminé's, Roxas noticed. It was bigger and not as soft; but it was warm, while hers were cold. Naminé's felt too fragile, while Axel's felt strong. He liked the feel of it; it seemed to fit with his somehow. He didn't even watch as Axel navigated their way to the front of the stage, all he could look at was the other boy's hand in his own. Everything else was a blur.

Finally they reached as close to the front as they could go, since the first few rows of people were packed as tightly as possible. Again, Roxas was disappointed when he lost contact with Axel because the boy dropped his hand, but he hadn't really expected him to keep holding it in the first place. The sucky band was finishing their set, thanking everyone and the drummer threw his drum sticks into the crowd. It was yet another thing that almost hit Axel in the head and Roxas laughed.

"Look at how close we are, and they're about to start!" Axel exclaimed enthusiastically. "We had perfect timing if you ask me."

"Yeah!" Roxas beamed, standing on his tip toes and bouncing to try to see past the people in front of them. Oblivion was going to be coming out very, very soon! He was so excited it felt like he might explode.

"Can you see?" Axel asked him, leaning down so he could hear better.

"Uh," Roxas jumped up and down a few more times. "Yeah."

"Liar," his friend accused and Roxas froze, because, although he didn't think Axel knew it, he'd been lying a _lot_ lately. But then Axel offered, "Wanna get on my shoulders?"

"Huh?" he yelled in surprise.

Axel smirked at his reaction. "Come on, I want you to be able to actually see the best band in the universe. Especially since it's your birthday."

With that, the redhead kneeled down awkwardly in the crowd, motioning for Roxas to climb _on top of him._

The blond looked down at him blankly, mouth agape. He did not think he could do that. The relentless crowd pushed forward, causing Axel to stumble a little, having to catch himself on a hand.

"Come on, Roxas, hurry up!" he shouted, wincing a little at having to try to maintain his balance.

Taking a deep breath, Roxas cautiously swung a leg up and over Axel's left shoulder, then slid into place with the other. He gasped and had to quickly grab onto the boy's red hair when Axel rose abruptly.

"Sorry!" he called down to him because of the fact that he had pulled on his friend's hair.

"It's alright!" Axel told him in a somewhat strained voice, so Roxas could tell that it must have hurt. He wobbled a bit on the older teens shoulders, not being the most poised person in the world and since he wasn't used to getting piggy back rides. Also, having his crotch against Axel's head was a little distracting. But when he looked up, he was in awe at how much he could see. Being a tall person must rock, he decided, because he could see above everyone's heads.

"Am I too heavy?" he asked worriedly when his friend stumbled a little.

"Of course not!" Axel assured him, standing up a little straighter.

The opening band was gone now, the stage was empty, but the noise level in the stadium still pounded against his ears. All of his senses were on overload, all the sights and sounds were almost too much too handle, along with the fact that he was sitting quite comfortably on his crush's shoulders. His hands were in Axel's hair for lack of anything else to hold onto, which he did feel guilty about when he inadvertently pulled on it in order not to fall off. The guy's hair, although it resembled a dead porcupine, was actually quite soft. Axel placed his hands on the younger boy's shins to help him stay balanced and every once in a while he readjusted them, causing Roxas forgot all about his surroundings. He realized that Axel's hands had literally been all over him today, even if unintentional.

Overall, everything was _amazing_.

It only took a few minutes until out of nowhere sparks burst up from the stage, making the whole crowd cheer and roar and Roxas thought by the time they were out of there they might be deaf. But then, out of the dark corners of the stage, out walked the members of Oblivion, looking majestic and godly and he could hardly believe his eyes.

A girl nearby them screamed louder than anything Roxas had ever heard, and he looked over to see her sitting on a guy's shoulders like he was on Axel's, lifting her shirt to flash the band. Whoa, it must be nice to be a rock star. Though he didn't think they would appreciate him copying her actions.

Roxas felt Axel's grip on his legs tighten in anticipation, wrinkling his jeans, as the stage was illuminated fully and he was disappointed that he couldn't see the redhead's face at the moment.

But then the lead guitarist – best in the world in Roxas' opinion - ran a hand through his unique cross between a mohawk and a mullet, and strung out the first cords to the opening song.

The crowd went wild, and Roxas cheered at the top of his lungs.

The show had begun, and it ended up being the most incredible event in the boy's life so far. Being in such a gigantic mass of people was something else. The attitude of the band and the extremely loud music made one forget everything about themselves, and become lost in the moment. Roxas forgot about Naminé, forgot to be nervous about Axel, and just _enjoyed_ himself. He would definitely never forget it.

----

"Man, I heard they were good in concert but you never really know until you _go_," Axel said in admiration as he turned the steering wheel on their way home in the early hours of the morning after the show ended. "When they each stage dived one after the other, shit, that was epic."

"Yeah…" Roxas said hoarsely, his voice almost gone from all the screaming. He'd never been so loud in his life; never let himself feel so free. All traces of being uptight or insecure totally faded away. "It was so…fucking amazing."

"Hell yeah it was," Axel said with a similarly exhausted voice. "But, man, my body's sore…"

Roxas gave him a sympathizing look that the other didn't had gotten beaten up in the crowd, but since the blond had been on his shoulders, he wasn't affected by them as much.

"Thank you so much for taking me…just…wow," Roxas breathed.

The older teen glanced over at him with an incredulous look. "Stop saying that. I wanted to, okay? And it was a hundred and fifty percent worth it."

Roxas nodded, too tired to argue. He let his head fall back against the seat of the car and closed his eyes. He was almost completely worn out.

After a long while, when they were getting closer to Roxas' house, Axel asked, "You still awake?"

Slowly cracking his eyes open, Roxas felt guilty that he had gotten to rest while Axel had been doing all the driving _and _carried him on his shoulders at the concert. How was he not passing out at the wheel already? _Jeez, I'm such a bad friend…_

Yawning, he replied, "Uh huh…"

"Don't worry; you'll be home soon to sleep," Axel told him with a laugh, face illuminated by the streetlamps as they drove by.

"Nnngh…I wish I could stay up forever and never get tired, just hanging out with Oblivion for the rest of my life," Roxas said dreamily as he stretched and sat up straighter.

"That would be freaking sweet," Axel concurred. "But your life is pretty awesome just as it is, you know. You got to see your favorite band on your birthday….you got to kiss the girl of your dreams… I mean, how does it feel?"

Scratching his forehead, Roxas almost cursed out loud that Axel was bringing up his lie again. He was too tired to pretend, too tired to make shit up. It was past his bedtime anyway. Couldn't it wait until tomorrow?

"Feels great," he responded blandly, hoping the subject would be dropped.

"Come on, you've gotta feel better than that," the redhead persisted. "You're really lucky, Roxas, maybe you don't realize it. If I were you, I would feel so insanely happy right now. Where's your insane happiness? I don't see it."

How did Axel have energy left to talk about this? "I am insanely happy," Roxas droned from partial irritation and partial fatigue. "Just too tired at the moment."

"You're lyyyyy-ing," his friend teased in a sing-song voice.

Roxas huffed and gritted his teeth. "Am not."

"Are toooo."

"Stop it, Axel," he insisted as he rubbed his eyes. Even though Axel was just kidding, the whole thing was reminding him of his lie, which he didn't need right now. He had just had a great time and he'd been able to forget about it. Roxas definitely didn't want to have to agonize over it again.

"You're a liar, liar, pants on fire you liar-"

"I'm not lying! I didn't lie, okay! I'm not a liar!" Roxas snapped without thinking, and then froze in mid-frantic-gesture when he remembered too late that Axel was just kidding. To his horror, the other boy's joking smile fell down into a perplexed frown, and the blond felt his body well up with dread.

"Whoa, whoa," Axel said before Roxas could think of something to say to save himself. The car slowly came to a halt at a red light and the redhead turned towards him. "I was just joking around, I wasn't saying you were. What, you've got a guilty conscience or something?"

"_Why yes, he does," _Angel Roxas announced with his arms already crossed over his chest as his white cloud he used for teleportation dissolved. _"Stop lying, Roxas. Now's the perfect time to admit it!"_

"No….I just…no." Ignoring his conscience, the blond turned away and focused his gaze out the window on some homeless person walking down the street, as if that would solve everything.

"Hold on. There's something that you're not telling me," Axel said suspiciously.

"No there isn't." _Shit, _he wanted the subject changed _now_. He had been stressing so much about holding up his lie, been so worried that Axel would find out all this time. And in his exhaustion he had probably just given himself away with that outburst.

"_Tell him!" _Angel Roxas cried. _"You're just making it worse!"_

"_No he's not!" _the devil contradicted as he flew out of his black portal and whacked the angel over the head with his pitchfork. There was a loud reverberating sound that only Roxas could hear as the metal pitchfork shook with vibration from the impact on the innocent conscience's hard head and halo. The angel's face went blank, dazed, before he fell in a slump, _un_conscious, ironically, leaving Roxas with only his evil side to guide him.

"_There's nothing wrong with lying, Roxas," _he advised while smoothing back his hair like he just went through some kind of physical exertion. His pitchfork was still quivering slightly and he tightened both hands on it firmly in order to stop it. _"As long as you can get away with it…go for it. Keep it up. What would Axel think if he found, huh? Totally wouldn't want in your pants, for sure."_

There was silence between the two real boys and Axel leaned back in his seat once the stoplight turned green in order to go back to driving again. Roxas almost sighed in relief, thinking that he had convinced him.

"If you lied to me about something, I won't be mad," the redhead said after a minute, tone of voice emotionless. Apparently he hadn't been convinced. "But, you shouldn't be afraid to tell me." With that statement he sounded a little hurt though and Roxas felt bad but also frustrated that Axel wouldn't just _leave _it.

"Why do you think that?" Roxas asked as casually as possible, though his trembling voice betrayed him. "I haven't lied about anything." God, now he was lying about _lying._

"Roxas. If that was true, we wouldn't be talking about this still, and you wouldn't be refusing to look at me."

To prove him wrong, Roxas whipped his head around to glare at him. "I'm really not," he hissed coldly.

"You don't have to get mad," Axel said defensively, _still _continuing it. Couldn't he take a hint?

"Well," he spluttered. "If you would stop bringing up Naminé and calling me a liar, I wouldn't _be_ mad!"

"Aha! So it's about Naminé," the redhead concluded and Roxas' jaw dropped.

"….N-no, it's really not, okay?" he protested after a moment's hesitation of trying to think of a proper way to deny it.

"Oh, but you do admit that you're lying, it's just not about Naminé?" Axel asked calmly, though he was scowling at the road like it had wronged him in the past.

"Yeah – uh, I mean, no." Roxas could feel his nerves going crazy all throughout his body as he was losing this battle. But suddenly some hope of escaping this situation burst through when he caught sight of his street up ahead.

"…Maybe I'm being an ass, you don't have to tell me…" Axel sighed as he turned the car onto the road. During this moment, angel Roxas woke up and lifted his head, wincing and rubbing it as he stood.

"_Ow, dear Lord, really, how can you trust someone who just hit me over the head with a demonic object, Roxas?" _he gasped as his memory returned and the devil was glaring at him, winding up to knock him out again.

"But, I thought we were close now," Axel rambled on, oblivious to Roxas' inner battle.

"_Don't give in! Don't be a pansy like that little you in a skirt over there!" _the evil one commanded.

"_Axel knows you're lying, if you want to maintain what friendship you have with him now, tell him the truth!"_

"_Shut up, fucking wuss!"_

"_No, you silence yourself, meanie!"_

Axel was tugging on his hair again, looking stressed and worn. "I mean, I just took you to-"

"Fine!" Roxas interrupted them all, not able to take his arguing consciences anymore or Axel's persistence. "You really want to know?" Grabbing his hair in frustration, his whole body was pulsing with emotions of panic and confusion; he didn't even care what he was saying anymore. "I didn't really kiss Naminé, okay? Are you happy now?"

Axel looked over at him immediately, stunned, and Roxas felt all the color drain from his face.

"_No, no, no, no, Roxas, what have you done?" _the devil pleaded, falling on his knees in defeat. _"No one wants to get with someone who lies to them! Never let them know! Oh man, you really screwed up now…"_

"…_I'm proud of you," _Roxas' angel said, though he didn't look too sure of himself. _"Finally, you are doing the right thing. It will all work out!"_

Roxas could tell that Axel took his foot off the gas as the two boys stared at each other and the car slowed. "…Why the hell would you lie to me about that?"

"…I don't know… Maybe because I'd look like a complete loser to you if I told you that I totally messed up?" Roxas admitted in a slightly shaky voice. Now that he had dug himself such a deep hole, there was no way he was getting out.

They were almost at his house now, only, goddammit, Axel was going _slower. _"What the hell, that's not true. You don't need to impress me."

Roxas almost rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, 'cause I would totally make a fool of myself willingly to someone who's extremely sexy and never has a problem with the-"

"Wait, you think I'm sexy?" Axel interrupted, a gradual smile now spreading across his face.

Roxas' face felt unbearably hot in just a split second, and he was sure that it was probably redder than it ever had been in his life. "N-no, I just mean that's what girls think, they all like you-"

"I'm not some kind of sex god or something Roxas," the other boy said tiredly, wiping a hand over his face as his grin faded away. "Christ, I've never even had sex."

Roxas had opened his mouth to disagree or attempt to say something that wouldn't screw him over more, but then paused. "…You're a virgin?"

"Yeah. I'm waiting for the right person, I guess. But don't change the subject," he said firmly, though ironically he was the one who brought it up. "You shouldn't feel like you have to lie to me. That's ridiculous, I just wanted to help you, not make you feel like you had to be perfect. Why would you be so uncomfortable telling me?" The boy looked positively puzzled and offended, which made Roxas feel guilty all over again even though he was finally telling the truth.

"I'm just confused about a lot of things right now, Axel-"

"What the hell is there to be confused about?" the other asked, seemingly determined to drag everything out of Roxas.

"Because of you – you – I - I just wish you would stop bringing Naminé up around me-"

"Why? I wanted to help you out with her, remember? That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, I guess I'm not even sure if I like her anymore!" Roxas blurted in attempt to keep up; then clapped his hands over his mouth in surprise. What? Where had that come from? He didn't really feel that way…did he? _Oh, what am I _doing_?_

They finally reached Roxas' driveway, and Axel did a double-take between the road and the other boy. But he didn't really have a choice but to focus on pulling in, and even then he almost hit their mailbox.

The moment he parked the car, Axel faced him again, an unreadable expression on his face. "Really?"

"Idon'tknow," Roxas squeaked as quickly as possible, feeling like the biggest idiot in the world and scared out of his mind. He uttered a hasty goodbye as he got out of the car faster than Michael Phelps could swim and raced to his doorway.

"Wait, seriously, Roxas, why didn't you think you could tell me that?" Axel called, and Roxas heard him slamming his own car door shut.

"I don't know!" he repeated as he ran up the path to his house, wanting to avoid any further confessions. _Why is he following me?_

"It's not a big deal, really!" Axel went on, sounding close behind. But it _was_ a big deal to Roxas. Right now, he just wanted to escape, and get away, to lock himself in his room and never face the world again.

The morning was painfully silent, only Axel's loud footsteps could be heard as he ran to catch up. "Just go home, Axel, I don't want to talk about this, okay?" Roxas said frantically as he dug his keys out of his pocket to try to get inside.

From the halt of his footsteps and the sound of his voice, Roxas could tell that the redhead was right behind him. "Alright, yeah, I'll go home."

The blond exhaled a breath and unlocked his door, but didn't hear Axel walk away.

"You're still here?" he asked, although he was certain as he turned around slowly and stiffly. Sure enough, Axel was right there in front of him, hands in his pockets. Since Roxas was standing on his house's porch, they were at eye level.

Axel swallowed, and he looked both serious and nervous. "Yup."

Roxas curled his fist tightly around the key in his hand, feeling his anger at himself spreading towards the older teen. "Why?"

Axel said nothing and Roxas had to crane his head up to see the teen's face as usual when he stepped up onto the porch. He narrowed his eyes at him, heart pounding and key digging into his skin, _daring_ him to come closer. But Axel only continued to walk forward, closing the distance between them. Roxas' glare melted away in an instant when suddenly, quicker than he had expected; the redhead was close enough to touch. The older boy placed a hand delicately on his cheek and he forgot how to breathe, forgot how to think, forgot everything that had been going on and everything that had ever happened. Shock taking over his features, Roxas glanced up into his enigmatic green eyes, questioning and speechless.

Axel leaned down, his eyelids lowering and their noses almost touched.

"I just wanted to say goodnight…" he breathed before kissing Roxas softly on the lips.


	8. Confessions

**Disclaimer: **Boo, no character in this is one that I have created. Testuya Nomura owns them.

**Author's Note, August 2009:** Oh, hi guys! You may be wondering, "whoa, why is she uploading a bunch of chapters of this story again?" Unfortunately, this isn't a real update. Chapters 3,5,6,7, and 8 were removed from ffnet a few days ago for "violating the guidelines." I wasn't given a warning or a reason other than that, but I'm not upset about it because it kept all of your awesome reviews still and gave me a chance to write up this long-ass author's note to explain some things to you guys xD I have gone through and edited the chapters in order to make them more appropriate for ffnet. I believe they should be fine now. If not, I guess I'll just post them elsewhere. Went through and took out a lot of the perverted humor, sorry :( I also took out some unnecessarily stupid stuff, the excessive swearing (haha, sorry, I really do curse a lot), and I also improved Naminé's characterization. Hopefully the writing is better now! :)

So what happened? Some of you have been asking, why have I not updated this since January 2009? Well, I guess college happened. I went to a school for a semester that ended up being a really wrong match for me, and it frankly sucked. Here's a little summary of what happened for you:

Big-scary-mean-college: WATCH AS I RUIN YOUR LIFE WITH BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY, AND CALCULUS. WATCH AS I TURN YOUR BEST FRIEND WHO YOU IDIOTICALLY CHOSE AS YOUR ROOMMATE INTO A FURRY WHORE WITH THE GROSSEST AND MOST ANNOYING BOYFRIEND EVER. WATCH AS I GIVE YOU NO TIME OR MOTIVATION TO WRITE FANFICTION. BWAHAHAHAHA.

The-Sugar-and-Spice part of Michele's soul: FATALITY.

So yeah, long story short, this chapter (chapter 8) was written after first semester. It was very difficult for me and not any fun, which is why I have not written this story since. I only write if I enjoy it. My writing has improved, my interests have changed and as I read through the chapters that I wrote in high school, I found it hard to believe that I had written this stuff xD

But! Do not give up. I still love AkuRoku and I haven't totally forgotten this story, and I would like to finish it. I still remember how I wanted it to end, and I probably can do it in just one chapter. So I just want to thank you all for you support, your reviews (sorry for the period of months when I was terrible at replying! D: I almost always do now), favorites, and alerts! And for the fanart that I love. The whole reason why I bothered to edit the chapters and post them back up is thanks to you guys. I mean, they were gone for less than 24-hours and someone messaged me asking about them since they were _translating_ them into Spanish. Holy crap! Your kind words have made me smile, blush, your advice has helped me to improve.

So this story is here and remains because of those who enjoy it - it is here for a fun and carefree read. It's not meant to be an epic or amazing story - I'm just happy if I can make people smile with it!

**Please do not leave me a review in regards to the chapters being removed. **I would rather have reviews just about the story itself. I have disabled anonymous reviews for a period of time because of this. If you want to talk about it or you have any questions, please send me a **private message** via my profile page. Thanks again guys!

* * *

**Sugar and Spice**

**Chapter Eight: Confessions  
**

_One minute till class starts_, Roxas thought as the clock's longer hand clicked one notch to the right. The boy tapped his pencil restlessly on his desk, glancing around the room obsessively as if its interior might change at any moment. _Where is he?_

"Hey Roxas!"

"Huh?" The boy tore his eyes away to see Naminé sitting down in the seat next to him. Disappointment struck harshly. "Oh, hi," he said to her; then turned his gaze swiftly to the doorway.

"…Is there something wrong?" she asked worriedly to the back of his head after a few seconds.

Biting his lip, Roxas contemplated whether he should say anything or not but his nerves easily broke his composure. "Uh, well, Axel's not here yet and I'm just worried about him, is all…" He jiggled his left leg edgily under his desk as his eyes constantly darted between the clock and the door, wondering when that _damn_ redhead would show up.

"Oh? Why wouldn't he be here?" Naminé asked conversationally, not at all catching the apprehension in his tone. Roxas cleared his throat, a specific moment of the night popping into his mind once again.

"We… went to the Oblivion concert last night." Despite his worry, Roxas was unable to keep a smiling from twitching onto his lips because it had been awesome in so many ways. "We didn't get back until it was early in the morning…and uh…" An automatic flush spread to his cheeks when he thought about when Axel said goodnight, but she thankfully didn't seem to notice.

"Ah, he must have slept in then," she concluded optimistically and turned to face front, ready for class. Roxas hoped like a sap that she was right. He'd always been a bit of a pessimist…

"Alright, today, we're having a pop quiz!" Xigbar announced with far too much enthusiasm for so early in the morning, especially when the sexiest redhead on earth was missing, as he entered the room. The whole class groaned, though Roxas couldn't care less what they were doing in math at the moment. He turned around one last time to see if Axel had snuck in without him noticing, but the redhead's seat was empty. When he faced front again, professor Xigbar was raising an eyebrow at him but he said nothing and just passed out quiz papers. Rubbing his tired eyes, Roxas blinked down at his test.

"_A ferris wheel is 40 feet in diameter and its axle is fixed 32 feet above the ground. Marianne got on at time t = 0 seconds into the car at the bottom of the wheel, and as the wheel turned she found it took exactly 48 seconds to go from the bottom point on the circle to the top. Write an equation h(t) giving Marianne's height above the ground in feet at time t in seconds."_

All Roxas could think of was how 'axle' looked like it was misspelled and needed to be capitalized.

Sighing in disbelief at himself at the fact that he was even considering calling upon them for help, Roxas asked in his mind, "_…Guys…do you think I screwed up last night? Is Axel not here because of me? Am I just being paranoid?"_

"_Whoa, whoa, one question at a time. Don't start getting clingy already…" _Roxas' devil replied almost automatically as he materialized, poking fun at his real-world-self's anxiety. _"Think hot lips isn't here because of you? …Hmmm… I think you might be right."_

"_No, no, no!" _Angel Roxas fluttered down onto his shoulder gracefully, stomping his feet on his words determinedly and making Roxas flinch. _"Axel isn't skipping school because of you, don't jump to conclusions!"_

"_Yeah, but…last night…" _Roxas blinked down at his paper miserably. _"I didn't really…"_

"_Your reaction was perfectly acceptable," _the angel reassured. _"Your first kiss was stolen by a _boy_ after all."_

There was a short pause in which each Roxas flushed a bit but the silence was broken when the evil conscience snorted, _"…Axel is _not_ a boy."_

Roxas' shoulder angel practically got whiplash from turning so quickly to gape at the devil. _"…Wha…what's that supposed to mean…?"_

Right away the trademark smirk slowly made its return to the other's face. _"Puh-lease… Have you looked at him? Axel is alllll _man_!"_

"…_Oh my God," _Angel Roxas spluttered, burying his face into his hands, mortified.

Roxas groaned, and copied his angel's actions. What was the point when they were never any help?

When the period ended, Roxas jolted awake at the bell that signaled it was time to move on to the next class. The only mark that he had made on his quiz was a nice puddle of drool, marking only the fact that he had fallen asleep. Reluctantly, he handed in his paper along with the rest of his peers, ready to accept his first zero in trig. But as Roxas was making his way out the door, a hand caught his arm.

"What's wrong with you, kid?" Xigbar asked him with a scowl.

Roxas blinked. "Uh, nothing," he said and shrugged him off.

"As if," Xigbar snorted. "You look like someone beat you with an ugly stick and then punched you in both your eyes." Roxas gaped at him, insulted, so the man added quickly, "No offense, of course. Usually you look very clean cut and… sunshine-y. …So what's the deal? You didn't even complete your test."

Scratching the back of his head, Roxas replied blandly, "I was up late, went to a concert last night." He appreciated that his teacher cared – but he had bigger things on his mind.

Xigbar studied him for a second and sighed. "With Axel?"

The blond shifted his feet and gave a short nod. "Yeah…"

"Oh, and he's skipping today now is he?" Xigbar asked suspiciously, crossing his arms.

Roxas' mouth fell open in protest, not meaning to have implied that at all even though the redhead was well-known for it. "N-no! I don't really know where he is-"

"He's skipping," his teacher concluded to his horror, pulling out a slip to give Axel a detention without considering obtaining any more proof. "That's what all the kids do after rock concerts…except for you, obviously. Weirdo."

"No, he, uh, might be s-sick or something!" Roxas stuttered, cursing himself for getting his friend in trouble.

With a roll of his visible eye, the man just pulled out a pen from his pocket to scribble on the paper. "You came to school. He didn't. And now I know where both of you were last night. Don't try to defend him, Roxas." Seeing the dismay on the boy's face, he went on, "I'm starting to think that kid has a bad influence on you. Taking you to a concert on a school night? Tsk, tsk. You're my best student, Roxas. I would tell you not to bother tutoring him anymore, but since he missed today's quiz, he's probably no longer passing."

Roxas was about to attempt sticking up for Axel again, when the cogs in his brain clicked to a halt with realization. "…Wait, he's _passing_?"

"_Was,_" Xigbar corrected. "Well, I guess _you_ are a good influence on _him. _So… if you see him, let him know he has a detention tomorrow for not having a valid excuse for being absent, but I'll let him take the test during it _just this once_. You can join him if you wish, since you slept all over yours. But he needs to come to class otherwise no more freebies and you'll stop wasting your time on him, capishe?"

"Uh…sure…" Roxas said to his over-sized shoes.

"Make sure not to forget to tack 'capishe' on the end there too, for effect." And with that, Xigbar slapped the detention slip into the boy's palm and went to his desk to watch YouTube.

Roxas dragged himself out of the room, wondering when he was going to see Axel next and how in the world he was going to get the courage to even talk to him.

* * *

The redhead wasn't in lunch either, which meant he definitely wasn't in school because he never missed a meal and it was his favorite 'subject' of the day.

So Roxas ate with Naminé by invitation, which was an interesting experience that only added to his anxiety.

"So you went to the Oblivion concert? How was that?" she asked while poking at the yellow lettuce in her salad. Wonderful, as if he wasn't already thinking about it enough.

Closing his cellphone because he hadn't gotten any texts from Axel and he certainly didn't have the guts to send him one, Roxas replied blandly, "Uh huh. It was great."

Naminé bit her lip and examined him for a moment, which made his current uncomfortable feelings only increase, before going on. "Just great?"

Roxas gave her a funny look, wondering why she was so interested when she claimed that Oblivion was 'just noise' to her. "It was fantastic," he elaborated with a sigh. "It was so freaking awesome… I could see everything because, uh, Axel put me up on his shoulders and it was so loud and kick ass and made for the best birthday ever!" He couldn't help but ramble and smile widely despite the fact that he was worried about Axel.

Swallowing down a gulp of her skim milk, Naminé nodded and smiled. "I'm so glad that you had such a great birthday. That's really cool for you, Roxas. I mean, you never really had a boy friend up until this year right? I'm glad you finally have a guy to be so close with."

Roxas nearly choked on his noodles at 'boy friend'. Seriously? Why did fate hate him so much? "Erm…yeah," he agreed awkwardly, practically wincing. There was no way that she knew, right?

Naminé propped her elbows on the table and looked at him with eyes that seemed to shimmer with joy and he drew back, studying her at a distance to try to figure out what the heck was up with her. "Hmm…and he's still not in school today. I bet you he's skipping," she said like she was all-knowing. Roxas scowled at her for making the same assumption as Xigbar. "Do you know where he is?"

The blond drew his eyebrows together, wishing that people would stop interrogating him about Axel. It wasn't like he was the guy's keeper – as much as he would like to be. He tried to pull off a casual shrug, but it ended up more like a nervous spasm. Naminé giggled, which only made him feel more embarrassed. "Yeah, the concert ran late into the morning and then he had to drive us back..." Even though Roxas figured that it was his own fault that Axel was absent. "Xigbar even gave me a detention slip to give to him because he didn't come to class and I kind of gave away why… I might be joining him to re-do mine as well. But uh, I don't know _really_ know why he isn't here."

To his utter and complete surprise, Naminé slapped her hands down on the table angrily. She almost gave him a heart attack. "What? You don't know where he is? He could have gotten into a car accident on the way home! Aren't you the least bit concerned?"

Oh, Roxas was concerned all right. But he really didn't want to talk about it with the girl he'd been crushing on since he was a wee child. He only looked down guiltily at his hands and decided that he had completely lost his appetite. What if Axel really hadn't gotten home alright? It had been really late at night – or early in the morning, rather. He did have a weird British neighbor with an obsession for cards who was known for driving drunk, after all.

Since Roxas wasn't responding, Naminé whipped out her cellphone with a flash and began pounding buttons with her thumbs so fast, they were a blur. "Wh-what are you doing?" Roxas questioned nervously, lifting his head to try to catch a glimpse of the screen.

"Texting Axel to see what's up," she explained with her gaze still focused on her phone, the glow illuminating her light blonde eyelashes.

Blue eyes widening, Roxas opened and closed his mouth like his goldfish Goofy that he had won at a fair a few years ago and ended up killing because he didn't clean the tank. He couldn't help but think that he might suffer the same fate, suffocate in his own crap – figuratively speaking. "W-What are you saying to him?"

Naminé glanced up for a second, bangs getting in her eyes so she shook them out of the way. "I'm just asking him why he's not here. Why are you so fidgety? Did you two get into a fight or something?"

"…Erm, nope not really," Roxas said awkwardly, thoughts a little jumbled.

"You don't sound very convinced…"Naminé's eyebrows twitched in confusion at him.

Roxas gave her the 'oh, like I'm going to tell you' look, and then asked, "Why do you care?"

Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, Naminé reached over and placed her hand on his. Roxas looked down at it, feeling the hairs on his skin prickle because he had liked her for so long, though there was something eating away at those feelings. And her hand looked…small. Too small. Felt too fragile, too soft.

"Because he set us up together," she said sweetly.

_Oh dear._

Luckily, Naminé's cell phone buzzed on the table so she removed her hand to retrieve it and Roxas relaxed his shoulders. She read the text with a frown and Roxas couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "What does it say?"

"'I slept in so I didn't bother coming to school'," she read out loud. Then she glanced up at him before reading on, "… 'How's Roxas?'..."

Said boy felt his spirits lift and he smiled a little, feeling slightly giddy to know that Axel was thinking about him.

"What should I tell him?" she asked next, fingers poised and at the ready to type away.

Roxas only blinked at her. "Uh…" What does a sad little bisexual boy say to the most amazing guy in school, who kissed him goodnight less than twenty-four hours ago?

Apparently Naminé knew better, for she started to dial out words without his consent, losing patience.

"Hey! What are you telling him?" Roxas suddenly thought of those chick flicks when girls would get together for sleepovers and one would call or talk to one girl's crush for them. This kind of felt like that. Roxas felt a little pathetic.

"That you want him to come over to your house later so you guys can study and you can give him his detention!" the blonde announced with an odd cheerfulness.

"Huh? No!" Frantically, Roxas reached across the table for the phone, but Naminé held her hand high in the air and at an angle too far away.

"Sending!"

It was a wonder that Roxas didn't piss his pants.

Naminé flipped her phone shut triumphantly and disposed of it into her oversized designer bag, eyeing Roxas' frightened appearance warily. "What's wrong?"

He struggled for words for a few moments, but eventually, the boy was able to respond. "I could have told him that myself…" he lied with a strained voice. "And he doesn't want to hear that I'm giving him detention!"

"Roxas… Relax…" Naminé said quietly. "Axel is your friend, he should want to see you for whatever reason and it doesn't matter who he hears it from!"

After about a minute of awkward silence and poking at the food on their trays, her cellphone vibrated again and Roxas perked up like a curious little kitten.

"He said, 'Alright, I'll meet him at his house after school.'" Naminé said in a bright tone, flinging the hand that wasn't holding her phone up into the air. "Yay!"

Roxas nodded, so happy that Axel wanted to see him again and talk to him. But now the nerves switched over to fret about seeing the older boy again. What would he say? What would he do?

"_I know. Steal his virginity," _his devil finally said right next to his ear with a maniacal laugh. _"Man… I still can't believe he's a virgin…"_

"_I don't understand what's so funny. You're still a virgin too…" _the angel pointed out with a roll of his eyes.

Devil Roxas opened his mouth to retaliate but was hesitant. _"Well… that's… no thanks to you, little prude!"_

"_When it's the right time and the right person-"_

"_Don't you dare say 'after marriage' or 'Naminé'," _the evil Roxas drawled, curtsying and using a girly tone on 'Naminé'. _"…Though I am still totally supportive of a threesome."_

* * *

On the bus ride home, Roxas almost looked like he was having a mini-seizure, he was shaking so much. The boy did not have good social skills, especially when it came to those he liked. _Especially_ those like Axel, who initiated something that boys don't often do together.

When he finally got home, Roxas flung the door of his house open. Not even bothering to close it, he ran to the bathroom to relieve himself. Honestly, those nervous butterflies in his stomach were making it so he was about to wet himself. He was in mid-pee when he heard a loud engine drawing close, slowing down. He quickly finished up and washed his hands. He'd been in that car enough to know the sound of it by now.

Dashing towards the door, Roxas caught his flustered appearance in the hallway's mirror; paused to try to compose himself, taking a deep breath. He straightened his clothing and his tie; then blinked dejectedly at his disheveled hair. Pursing his lips, he raised his hands up to the blond locks and futilely attempted to flatten the pieces that seemed to be sticking straight up into the air and overall make it look like less of a mess. It wasn't working though, and he huffed in frustration, pulling at the strands in his hands harshly.

"…What are you doing?"

The voice came from the doorway and Roxas whirled around, eyes wide and hands still tangled up in his hair. Axel could clearly be seen standing there in front of the screen door, looking stiff and not wearing his usual smirk of greeting.

"Axel!"

"Hey…" the redhead said, his lips twitching into a nervous smile. The two stared at each other until Axel broke eye contact, glancing around at the spaces that surrounded Roxas in a completely obvious way. Seriously, the picture of Roxas' great Aunt Ruth was not all that interesting.

There was a long awkward silence in which the two only fidgeted nervously, perhaps waiting for the other to speak. Roxas' memory flashed back to that very early morning, Axel kissing him on his doorstep, causing his entire face to flush and any hope of thinking of something clever to say died in his throat.

"Uh… can I come in?" Axel finally asked, still smiling slightly.

Letting his hands finally fall from his hair, Roxas straightened up. "O-oh of course!"

The other boy made his way inside, giving Roxas a funny look as he drew closer. Roxas had forgotten how tall Axel was and swallowed tensely, almost painfully. The redhead paused a few feet in front of him, biting his lip and chuckling a little.

_What the hell? Why is he laughing at me…? _"What?" the blond demanded a little harshly, setting his expression to a glare. It was quite a challenge, considering that Roxas felt the strong urge to tackle him to the ground and kiss the redhead instead.

Finally Axel made eye contact again, grinning like his usual self, though it was softer than the mocking one he most often wore. "Ah, nothing, it's just… your hair…"

Roxas' eyebrows twitched down in confusion at him, but then he turned slowly back to the mirror to see that his hair was sticking out on the sides from where he had been pulling it. Oh great, he had only made it _worse._ Blinking at himself, he realized that he kind of looked like a blond Sora. Weird.

"You look a little like that Sora kid right now…" Axel commented amusedly, echoing Roxas' thoughts and catching him by surprise. "You should leave your hair alone. I like it the way it always is."

And suddenly Axel was closing the distance between them again, making Roxas feel light-headed, his eyes growing impossibly wide. His adrenaline spiked, and his consciences screamed _"He's going to kiss you again!" _

The redhead smiled and placed both his hands on either side of Roxas' head, smoothing the boy's hair down gently. "There."

"…Guh…" was all Roxas was able to say to him, mouth hanging open stupidly and most likely making himself appear extremely unattractive.

Axel's smile slowly faded away to a thin line, the older teen's eyebrows knitting together. Roxas cursed himself. Nobody wanted to kiss someone who was looking at them like they had the IQ of a meat wad.

Quickly removing his hands, Axel let them fall to his own sides. The already awkward air was only growing heavier by the minute. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"_Tch__, this is ridiculous, you two are acting like a pair of twelve year old girls. Be a man and just admit that you want him already and maybe he'll do the same," _Roxas' devil remarked dryly, examining his nails.

The angel was standing on the opposite shoulder, hands behind his back and tracing a crease on Roxas' shirt with a sandaled foot, silent.

"_What, you don't have some kind of anti-gay counter to that?" _Devil Roxas called over to him incredulously; then paused upon seeing the other conscience's stance. _"What's up with you? Is that…is that a _blush_ on your face I see?" _A slow smirk spread from ear to ear when the pure mini-Roxas looked up and his face was visibly red. _"My, my! I think someone is starting to want Axel to take his innocence away-"_

"_Wha? No!" _Angel Roxas protested, a few feathers coming loose from his wings and floating downwards slowly. _"I would never! Axel's just… sweet that's all."_

"_Sweet, huh? Want to test that hypothesis? I'm sure Axel tastes _very_ good-"_

"Erm, so… Naminé said you were going to give me – detention?" Axel asked with an anxious laugh, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"Oh, oh yeah," Roxas nodded, reaching into his back pocket to retrieve the somewhat crumpled piece of paper. "Uh, Xigbar kind of figured that you were skipping since he found out we both went to the concert last night and… yeah…" Wincing at his own disability to explain something so simple, Roxas held out the slip to him.

Axel took it tentatively from the boy and studied it with a scowl on his face. "Detention tomorrow, huh? Great…"

"I-I'm sorry. It's my fault," Roxas blabbered right away. "Xigbar gave a pop quiz and I fell asleep during it. He asked why and when I explained, he jumped to conclusions…"

"Jumped to conclusions?" Axel asked abruptly, eyebrows shooting up and almost into his hairline.

"Yeah… that you were skipping school…" Roxas elaborated, giving the redhead a strange look.

"Oh…" Axel nodded, seeming relieved. "Well, shit, I missed a quiz?" With a sigh, Axel leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "Now I'm probably not passing anymore…"

All this small talk was practically killing Roxas; he didn't just imagine that Axel kissed him last night, right? This wasn't how he had pictured their reunion afterwards. In Roxas' mind, it had involved a little less conversation and a little more mouth to mouth contact. And a hell of a lot less awkward.

That's when Roxas noticed that Axel's hands were shaking slightly and upon glancing down at his own, he found they were the same. The redhead looked uncomfortable and jittery, like he didn't want to be there. Roxas realized that he had to give the older boy reason to stay. "Well, let's study together! I have to re-take the test tomorrow, anyways," he provided with faux confidence.

To his delight, Axel's expression brightened and he nodded. "Gonna tell me what was on it?" he asked with an eyebrow wiggle. The air seemed to lose its weight, sinking down to a comfortable level between them. It seemed that neither of them was going to mention the kiss or make a move and Roxas was okay with that – for now. He just wanted things to be at ease with himself and Axel; that was the most important thing, despite what the malicious part of his conscience suggested.

"Noooo," Roxas laughed, shaking his head and heading over to the couch. "I, uh, fell asleep after I looked at the first question anyways… But it's all stuff we've learned recently." Axel grimaced a little, feeling guilty for causing Roxas to be up so late that night but followed him obediently, sitting down in his normal spot where he was tutored. Roxas glanced over and took in the slightly awkward way Axel's knees bent above his thighs due to his height when he sat, smiling at the irony of things. Who knew that he'd fall for a tall, lanky, spiky-haired redhead with _tattoos_ on their face? And a boy for that matter…

They got out their notes from class and shuffled through them as Roxas did the same with his thoughts, trying to pull out a way to keep things light and laid-back. "Uh, would you like something to drink?"

"Uh, sure," Axel responded, "What d'you have?"

"Soda," Roxas replied automatically. He drank so much it that it practically ran through his blood and it was a miracle that his teeth were still nice and white.

The redhead seemed amused by this, smiled crookedly and leaned back, tugging on his ear a little. His habit! His nervous habit that he did around Roxas! That was a good sign, the blond hoped. "Nah… I'll just have water," Axel answered.

Nodding and grinning tensely, Roxas scurried off to the fridge. Okay – things were a little weird; still awkward. But now was the time to fix it. But how?

"_Head back in there and give him a lap dance or something,"_ devil Roxas sighed tiredly, rubbing his forehead. _"Whatever, just make it obvious that you want more than to be just friends. Friends with benefits even. Really _good_ benefits, heh."_

"Oh, shut up," Roxas muttered aloud, pouring himself a glass of cherry soda from the liter he had defiantly bought when his mom had foolishly sent him grocery shopping; then moved on to Axel's cup of water. Psh, water. No wonder he was so skinny.

He paused and took a deep breath, deciding that if Axel didn't do or say anything, neither would he. They would just go about their studying ways, drink their drinks, and he would figure out the rest later.

"_Good plan, Roxas, I'm proud of you!" _angel Roxas complimented sweetly.

"_Suck up," _the other said dryly. _"I don't see you offering any advice."_

Deciding also that he really didn't want to listen to himself argue anymore, Roxas strode back into the living room at top walking speed. But he reached the couch right as Axel apparently thought it was the perfect time to abruptly stand up and head for the doorway. Their timing couldn't have been any worse, or more perfect, one could say. The two collided together with surprised grunts, water splashing between them and cherry soda flying forward and wetting the whole front of Axel's shirt.

_Oh. Shit._

They stared at each other with wide eyes and open mouths for a long moment, Axel holding his arms out awkwardly – at what Roxas couldn't help but notice was a forty-five degree angle thanks to damn trig – from his sides. Soda was dripping from the redhead down to the carpet and it didn't help matters that he had decided to wear a white shirt that day. Having Axel's shirt be see-through made the situation almost ten times worse for Roxas.

"_I knew he had a killer body under that school uniform," _devil Roxas said smugly.

Somehow this made Roxas snap out of it and he spluttered, "Oh crap, I'm _so_ sorry!"

Surprisingly, Axel only chuckled and shook his arms out a little, as if he had been immobile until Roxas decided to speak. "S'alright, accidents happen…"

The blond swallowed and tried to think of what to do next, opting to set the two glasses he was holding down onto the table. When he rose and his gaze returned to Axel, however, his whole thought process seemed to halt completely. His brain only knew to make his face flush pink and to keep his eyes fixed on what Axel was currently doing, which was peeling the hem of his shirt away from his belly. His flat, flawless, drool-worthy belly!

"Whoa what are you doing?" Roxas squeaked, eyeballs practically falling out of his head.

Thankfully Axel paused and blinked at him, shirt halfway up his stomach. "Uh…" He laughed uneasily, looking unsure of himself. "This shirt's covered in soda, Roxas. Do you have a spare I can borrow?" And with that the damn redhead decided that it was a wonderful idea to continue, pulling his shirt up and inside out above his head, getting stuck at the neck and squirming a little to get out of the trapping article of clothing. The blond in front of him took the opportunity to gawk at the chest he'd never had the privilege of seeing before while listening to the oddly sexy noises of frustration Axel was making. Oh this must have been some sort of twist of fate just to mock Roxas!

Finally Axel was able to tug the soda-sodden top off, red hair turning out a little messy on top of his head thanks to the struggle. He wiped at his chest with the dry part of the shirt as if it was a towel, then noticed Roxas ogling him and glanced down at his naked torso self-consciously.

"…What?"

Roxas was only faintly aware that angel Roxas had passed out some time ago on his shoulder and that his devil was flying circles around his head issuing commands. He couldn't comprehend much at all at the moment and neither could possibly have any influence because the dominant part of his mind was telling him, _"Axel good. Axel wet. Axel hot. AXEL NOW!"_

"Roxas, is there something wro–nnff!" Axel started to speak in what sounded like a concerned voice but was cut off when Roxas lunged forward, wrapping his arms around the redhead's neck and pressing a sloppy, wet kiss to the corner of his mouth. The force of Roxas' assault caused the redhead to stumble backwards with flailing arms, trip over the arm of the couch and land flat on his back, carrying the blond down along with him. They both landed with a startled grunt, Roxas now straddling the older boy's hips, hands still clutching onto his bare shoulder's instinctively from the fall. They were back to staring again for a long moment, muscles tense, unmoving, faces flushing.

"I'm s-sorry! I'm so sorry!" Roxas stammered at last as he moved to get up off of his crush, planning to run up to his room and hide under his bed for the rest of his life because he couldn't face the humiliation. But before he could even swing a leg off of the body underneath him, Axel grabbed hold of his hips, preventing him.

"Hey, hey! You missed," the redhead stated in a tone as firm as his grip on Roxas.

"Huh?" Roxas yelped frantically.

"You missed…" Axel reiterated, expression softening as he let go of Roxas' hips, much to the blond's relief. But all panic came rushing back when those hands suddenly cupped his face, pulling him down to eye level. Before Roxas could even realize what was happening, make some kind of flustered sound, or even question with his eyes, Axel had slipped his own shut and kissed the blond perfectly on the mouth. It was quick, but much better, smoother and more meaningful than Roxas' previous failed attempt. Axel gently let his hands fall away and Roxas pulled back a little breathlessly, gawking at the smiling redhead below him. He was on top of a sticky, half-naked Axel who had just kissed him. He couldn't have asked for a better situation than this, and yet he was completely lost as to what to do.

So a garbled "Oh," was all he could muster. An awkward silence followed, then "I'm sorry."

Axel just chuckled, the action sending Roxas bouncing up and down uncomfortably on his lap. "Don't say sorry… I thought… I thought I had completely messed up, the other night – this morning I mean, you totally didn't react…"

And finally – the subject Roxas had been thinking about and wondering when they would talk about it was on the table.

"No! You didn't mess up, I did," he quickly corrected. It was true, when Axel kissed him after the concert; he was completely shocked and didn't have a clue what to do. So he did what any flustered, nervous bisexual guy receiving his first kiss from another guy would do – nothing. And like an idiot, he had let Axel walk away without anything more; rendered speechless. "I'm sorry, I didn't know… what to do…"

"Stop apologizing already," Axel sighed, wiping a hand over the embarrassed expression on his face. "So, wait… you… were okay with that?"

Swallowing thickly, Roxas nodded. With the nervous combination of his heart beating so fast, the adrenaline rushing through his veins and the sweat threatening to gush out of his pores, he thought he might explode.

They blinked at each other with slightly bulging eyes as if they had just witnessed Larxene run streaking butt-naked through the room or something equally as frightening. Though understandably, the subject was a bit scary to both of them.

"I… thought you liked Naminé," Axel stated.

"…I thought you liked girls," Roxas said so quietly it was practically a whisper.

The redhead snorted and averted his eyes. "Yeah, I thought I did too – I do, I mean."

"But…" Roxas prompted.

"But," the redhead agreed, eyes flicking back to the blue ones above him, his green mixing with sincerity and hesitancy at what he would say next.

"I like you too, Roxas…"

"I… when…?" Once again Roxas was completely lost for what to say, he was practically a statue on Axel's lap. He had just admitted that he was okay with Axel kissing him; without any hesitation or consulting with his consciences and Axel had just came out about having a crush on him as well. He didn't know what think of himself – or Axel – at the moment. He could only sit there as a nervous bundle of nerves and hope that his muscles held up and that he didn't randomly collapse on top of the redhead.

"I found myself wanting all your attention, even though I tried so hard to help you win Naminé's," Axel explained softly, reaching up and running a hand through Roxas' unruly hair. "I couldn't really figure it out until finally… after the concert seeing you all flustered and confessing that you lied and all that –" Roxas was sure he was permanently crimson by now "- it… just kind of hit me. Don't really know why it took my stupid brain so long to figure it out."

Roxas looked up to the ceiling in thought. "Maybe you were in denial?" he asked, thinking of his own angelic conscience always telling him that Axel was only a friend.

Pursing his lips, swallowing hard and contemplating this for a moment, Axel nodded. "Yeah… "

"So what does this mean?" Roxas asked tensely; wondering how in the world Axel seemed so calm when they were coming out that they were _gay_ for each other and their whole lives they'd been taught it was girls that they should be with.

"Well…" Axel replied, taking in a deep breath that caused Roxas to marvel at his chest again. "I kissed you… and you kissed me… and we kissed again. I told you that I like you and – I think you like me too. Uh, right?"

"Yes," the younger boy responded right away, making sure not to falter this time. He couldn't mess up again; he didn't want to lie anymore.

"I think that means we like each other, Roxas."

"…Oh my God," said blond murmured, covering his face with his hands.

"What?" Axel frowned, reaching up and taking Roxas' hands in his own, pulling them away from his face. "Are you embarrassed?" Suddenly, he looked fearful, confidence withdrawing back from his eyes. He slid backwards to get up, Roxas still moving with him whether he wanted to or not since he was sitting on the older teen's lap. Axel's voice was slightly panicked next, "Shit, I'm so stupid – I should have known better, for a minute there I was just so amazed that you weren't… disgusted with me or anything but–" He pushed at Roxas' hips to try to get him off. "I should go–"

"W-wait a second!" Roxas frantically interrupted his rambling before the redhead could go any further. Lightly smacking Axel's hands away from himself, he requested, "Don't leave, please?"

Axel squirmed a little but complied, making eye contact with Roxas and expression serious. "You have to admit this is kind of crazy," he said, sucking in a breath.

"You were fine with it a minute ago," Roxas observed and placed his hands delicately down on Axel's upper stomach to support himself, barely having the guts to touch him.

"Yeah, but, but…" the redhead spluttered. "What are we going to do?"

It was kind of ironic for Axel to be asking _Roxas_ about this since the boy knew generally nothing about dating and received his first kiss – and then a few more – in that very same day. After a moment's thought, Roxas breathed out honestly, "I don't know."

"We can't just go on being the tutor and the tutored after this, can we?" Axel questioned rhetorically and winced slightly at his words, continuingly fearing the reaction. "Things… will be weird between us now," he clarified, and Roxas had to resist snorting – as if things weren't weird already. "As lame as it sounds, I don't want to stop being friends…"

Roxas gulped down a large lump in his throat and he could feel Axel's hastening heartbeat beneath his fingers. "Are you saying we can't be friends anymore?"

"Uh…" Axel seemed to be struggling a lot with this – almost as uncertain about it as Roxas was and it eased the blond's nerves a bit to know this. "I don't see how we can be…_ just_ friends now."

Ah. Roxas got it finally. It was either go their separate ways and pretend it never happened, or follow their desires and be more than friends. Axel was right, their relationship couldn't be as it was, there would always be their underlying feelings for each other whether they wanted to acknowledge them or not.

"_Don't deny yourself something that you want Roxas!" _devil Roxas shouted, _" He wants you! Let him know!" _

The real Roxas turned his head towards his shoulder angel for support. The innocent conscience was biting his thumbnail and said, _"I told you lying wasn't a good thing to do and that's what you'll be doing if you don't tell him how you feel. You'll both be lying to each other and yourselves if you don't act now." _He smiled at Roxas and then at Axel. _"It doesn't matter that he's a guy… Though it's going to still be a little hard for me to get used to."_

Roxas beamed; pleasantly surprised that practically his whole consciousness had accepted his feelings for Axel now._ "Thanks," _he told them in his head.

"Roxas?" Axel scratched the top of his head anxiously, waiting for a response and wondering why the blond was grinning so widely.

Roxas looked at him adoringly. "I like you a lot, Axel."

"Wha-? Really?" Axel's blush darkened.

"Yeah." Roxas felt like his confidence was growing slightly, he knew Axel liked him and Axel was nervous about the whole situation as well, so it was ridiculous to fear what to say, right? "I kind of realized even before I started tutoring you. You've been… confusing me for a really long time now," he admitted with a somewhat exhausted sounding laugh.

"Wow," Axel breathed as he propped his elbows on the back of the couch and pushed himself up to a sitting position. "What a compliment." He touched one of Roxas' cheeks with a hand, leaning forward, hovering close and pausing before kissing him quick. Unfortunately, this sent all hopes for Roxas' composure to remain right down the tubes. He ducked his head to hide the coloring of his face and moved his hands off of the redhead's torso to straighten his shirt self-consciously. But his fingers somewhat stuck to Axel's skin from the sugary soda drying on him; Roxas needing to somewhat peel them off.

"Oh, gross," Axel commented, making a face.

Insulted and hurt, Roxas drew back, frowning.

"N-not you! The soda on me!" Axel rectified with a laugh. "This is why I don't drink that stuff," he added with a wink. "Can I go wash up?"

Roxas bit down a smile, still slightly embarrassed, and stood to allow Axel to go clean himself off. He fetched him a shirt that fit the redhead just fine except for the fact that it was too short and they worked together to clean up the mess that was made from the drink on the carpet. Oddly enough, they began studying as normal, though there was a different air between them now, gazes always lingering a little longer. Perhaps they were to afraid to talk about their feelings for each other again, neither brought it up.

"Hey, after detention tomorrow, you wanna come study at my place instead?" Axel asked as he was leaving, draping his dirty shirt over one shoulder. He scratched the back of his head and said in a quieter voice as if someone might overhear, "Uh, we can talk more then, too," hinting back to their earlier conversation where they had somehow lost how to continue it.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Roxas replied with a lopsided smile, fingers playing nervously at the sides of his pants.

The redhead took a step forward, hesitated, and decided against whatever he was going to do. "Okay. See you tomorrow then," he said, ruffling Roxas' hair before heading out the door to his car.

Tomorrow. Roxas had always wanted to see Axel's place, he credited it to wanting to know more about the boy – it most _certainly_ wasn't like he wanted to stalk him or anything. Admittedly, he felt his pulse race in anticipation – and nervousness at what might happen. Okay, tomorrow they could discuss more of what this meant and what they were going to do. Axel actually liked him, and knew that Roxas liked him back. And he seemed okay with it, just as Roxas did. The taboo of two boys being together didn't seem a big deal anymore. Though it would be at school, which was a big concern – if they were going to date, that is. Were they? As Roxas was watching him drive away, devil Roxas popped up on his shoulder and said smoothly, _"Don't worry about it now… I do believe it's time for me to announce that I totally just won…"_

Angel Roxas shook his head but couldn't contain his smile either. _"Oh, shut up and go to hell." _


End file.
